Today is the last of our Community Interviews with 8 of the local General Election candidates. Thank you to them and to those who set the questions.
Jane Burnet: Green Party Dorset South
Caroline Lucas has campaigned for the tax avoidance bill. It is estimated that between £75bn and £125bn is lost through tax avoidance and evasion. There is a £2bn industry built around accountancy firms that design tax avoidance schemes. We would make this illegal. We also believe it is reasonable to aim to retrieve £30bn of unpaid tax relatively easily. Labour plans £7bn and the Conservatives £5bn. These figures are unambitious and send the message that they are not addressing the true scale of the problem. Working with our global partners will be necessary but we need to start in the UK because the UK is known to be one of the world’s tax havens.
Peter Barton Green Party West Dorset
The Green Party has plans to crack down on tax evasion and avoidance that are tougher than those of any other party. This problem illustrates one of the main ways in which the super-rich need to be made to make a much fairer contribution to our society and yet it is benefit fraud that receives far greater focus from government, HMRC and sections of the right-wing press. Tax evasion and avoidance amounts to a sum thirty times greater than the sum lost to benefit fraud.
The lack of will of recent governments to tackle this problem is illustrated by the cuts to HMRC staff which has fallen by almost half since 2004. The Green Party would increase HMRC staff by 15 thousand p.a. over the course of the parliament. We would introduce an urgent programme of legislation starting with a Tax Dodging Bill designed to close the tax gap. We would oblige banks to provide information about companies automatically to HMSC and abolish the rule that allows non-domiciled residents not to pay tax on foreign earned income. We would force companies to pay tax in the country where the profit is earned and not to export it to a low-tax country. We would abolish the seven-year rule by making all gifts by living donors subject to tax.
Oliver Letwin: The Conservative Party West Dorset
We have already done a lot to tackle both tax evasion and tax avoidance, saving billions for the Exchequer, for example by increasing the levy that non-doms in the UK pay; but we plan to do a lot more. To make sure that large multinationals contribute their fair share, we’re introducing a 25 per cent tax on multinationals’ profits where they’re artificially shifted out of the country. And we will also be introducing new rules to make it easier for HMRC to reclaim unpaid tax.
Simon Hoare: Conservative Party North Dorset
If re-elected, Conservatives will continue to shut tax loop holes and provide the resources to HMRC to recoup avoided tax wherever and whenever possible. We are trying to pay back the most enormous debt run up by Labour: Government needs as much money as it can get and, self evidently, evasion and avoidance must be reduced as much as possible
Rachel Rogers, Labour Party West Dorset
A Labour Government’s first Finance Bill will:
• close the tax loopholes that cost the Exchequer billions of pounds a year.
• introduce tougher penalties for those abusing the tax system and end unfair tax breaks used by hedge funds and others.
• carry out a review into HMRC to ensure that everyone follows the same rules
• abolish non-dom status so that all those who make the UK their home pay tax in the same way.
Simon Bowkett: Labour Party Dorset South
Labour has set out a tough new target for the Treasury and HMRC to cut tax avoidance and evasion by at least £7.5 billion a year in the next Parliament and a ten point plan to help deliver it.
On the first day of a Labour government there must be:
· A draft Finance Bill which is an Anti-Tax Avoidance Bill and delivers the legislation needed for the measures set out in Labour’s ten point plan to tackle tax avoidance and evasion;
· A report from HMRC on all current measures and processes for tackling tax avoidance and evasion, so that Labour’s review of culture and practices at HMRC can make an immediate start.
We will also ask the Bank of England to focus on risks from the informal economy, including avoidance, evasion and the tax gap, in delivering its financial stability objective.
Labour’s immediate review of culture and practices at HMRC will help deliver this reduction of at least £7.5 billion a year in tax avoidance and evasion in the next Parliament – with the ambitious goal of doing so by the middle of the next Parliament. This will reverse increases in the tax gap under the Tories and get it back on a downwards trajectory.
We will challenge all parties, including the Tories to back Labour’s plan, which includes Labour’s pledge to abolish the 200 year-old non-dom rules and action to tackle tax avoidance by hedge funds.
Measures in Labour’s plan also include changing the so-called ‘carried interest’ rules which allow private equity managers to pay lower rates of Capital Gains Tax – instead of income tax – even when they are not investing much of their own money.
Both the Chancellor and Chief Executive of HMRC will also have to present an annual report to Parliament, and give evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, on the government’s progress in tackling tax avoidance and evasion.
Labour’s ten point plan sets out a series of measures it will take in order to help raise billions of pounds a year and protect the nation’s finances.
In addition to abolishing the non-dom rules which Labour has said will be used to help get the deficit down, the concrete tax avoidance measures we have set out – including new measures today and Labour’s changes to pension tax relief for the very highest earners – will mean Labour can fully fund our NHS Time to Care Fund, abolish the bedroom tax and cut tuition fees to £6,000. Additional revenues raised over and above this will be used to help get the deficit down.
Ros Kayes: Liberal Democrats West Dorset
Tax dodging is abhorrent . It creates a double standard whereby the wealthy can get away with not paying their dues, while those accused of benefit scrounging are punished. Offshore tax havens and tax loopholes helped create the culture that caused the banking crisis and the recession. I believe strongly that these incredibly wealthy people should be putting more back, proportionally, than they take out , for the benefit of all citizens.
We will also introduce a range of other measures, including a General Anti-Avoidance Rule, which goes much further than the current anti-abuse rule enabling government to take action wherever an individual or corporation engages in any activity the primary purpose of which could be interpreted as being to avoid tax. This is a simple proposal that can close down tax loopholes as they are discovered and exploited by top accountants (which after all is what they are paid to do). We will also seek to extend the requirement for country-by-country reporting from banks and extractive industries to cover all UK listed companies. The majority of these proposals will be introduced through the annual Finance Bill, allowing us to take regular action throughout the Parliament.
I also want to see international pressure on governments which support tax havens (including our own). I believe in a world in which we all pay our fair share.
Our manifesto contains proposals to criminalise corporate failure to prevent economic crime focusing on accountants, banks and lawyers, making those who facilitate tax evasion liable for fines the same as evaders themselves.
We will implement a new offence of corporate failure to prevent economic crime with penalities dor directors which include custorial sentences. We will lety penalities on firms proven to facilitate tax evasion equivalent to the amount of tax evaded by their clients.
Vikki Slade: Liberal Democrats Mid Dorset and North Poole
I am committed to making sure that all companies and individuals pay their fair share of tax. We need to work internationally to make sure that people cannot move their money elsewhere to gain favourable tax advantage and we should be more public where companies employ evasive techniques so that the public can vote with their wallets! I have personally not dealt with Amazon for nearly 3yrs after the disclosure on their tax affairs and I know many people are doing the same.
As a party we would bring in a new crime for those who deliberately help companies to evade tax, introduce as Anti-avoidance rule and invest in HMRC so they can increase the tax collection rates.
