Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of countries the Government would need to support any multilateral agreement on public country-by-country reporting for the purposes of implementation of paragraph 17 (6) of Schedule 19 of the Finance Act 2016; and what steps he is taking to secure the support of that number of countries.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Knowing who ultimately owns and controls a company is a crucial part of the global fight against corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing. The UK is leading by example and our freely accessible public register of company beneficial ownership went live in June 2016.
Last year, the UK co-launched a ground breaking new initiative with the EU G5 for the systematic exchange of beneficial ownership information. Since launching the initiative, over 50 countries, including all of the Crown Dependencies and relevant Overseas Territories, have signed up.
Building on the success of that multilateral approach, the UK is now pushing for multilateral agreement on a model of public country-by-country reporting (CBCR).
It is important that there is a level of international support and co-ordination that leads to both domestic and foreign headquartered groups being required to report information for a comprehensive range of countries in which they operate.
That is necessary to ensure that public CBCR meets its objective and to avoid the initiative distorting business decisions on their group structure and headquarter location.
The UK is, as part of this, engaging constructively with the European Commission proposal for public CBCR.
That includes the high-level aims of the Directive, and the more detailed aspects of the Directive that are alluded to in the question, on which discussions are still ongoing.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to issue guidance to business on the EU definition of commercially sensitive information for the purposes of the use of that term in the final form of Directive 2013/34EU on public country-by-country reporting.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Knowing who ultimately owns and controls a company is a crucial part of the global fight against corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing. The UK is leading by example and our freely accessible public register of company beneficial ownership went live in June 2016.
Last year, the UK co-launched a ground breaking new initiative with the EU G5 for the systematic exchange of beneficial ownership information. Since launching the initiative, over 50 countries, including all of the Crown Dependencies and relevant Overseas Territories, have signed up.
Building on the success of that multilateral approach, the UK is now pushing for multilateral agreement on a model of public country-by-country reporting (CBCR).
It is important that there is a level of international support and co-ordination that leads to both domestic and foreign headquartered groups being required to report information for a comprehensive range of countries in which they operate.
That is necessary to ensure that public CBCR meets its objective and to avoid the initiative distorting business decisions on their group structure and headquarter location.
The UK is, as part of this, engaging constructively with the European Commission proposal for public CBCR.
That includes the high-level aims of the Directive, and the more detailed aspects of the Directive that are alluded to in the question, on which discussions are still ongoing.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of automatic exchange of information on beneficial ownership as a means of introducing country-by-country reporting; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of such automatic exchange of information for securing a multilateral agreement to introduce public country-by-country reporting.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Knowing who ultimately owns and controls a company is a crucial part of the global fight against corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing. The UK is leading by example and our freely accessible public register of company beneficial ownership went live in June 2016.
Last year, the UK co-launched a ground breaking new initiative with the EU G5 for the systematic exchange of beneficial ownership information. Since launching the initiative, over 50 countries, including all of the Crown Dependencies and relevant Overseas Territories, have signed up.
Building on the success of that multilateral approach, the UK is now pushing for multilateral agreement on a model of public country-by-country reporting (CBCR).
It is important that there is a level of international support and co-ordination that leads to both domestic and foreign headquartered groups being required to report information for a comprehensive range of countries in which they operate.
That is necessary to ensure that public CBCR meets its objective and to avoid the initiative distorting business decisions on their group structure and headquarter location.
The UK is, as part of this, engaging constructively with the European Commission proposal for public CBCR.
That includes the high-level aims of the Directive, and the more detailed aspects of the Directive that are alluded to in the question, on which discussions are still ongoing.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made on reaching a multilateral agreement under which the UK will adopt public country-by-country reporting.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The UK has led international action to enhance tax transparency. This included initiating the international work on country-by-country reporting during its G8 Presidency in 2013, and being the first country to commit to implement the OECD model for country-by country reporting with legislation in the 2015 Finance Act.
The Government believes a multilateral approach to public country-by-country reporting would help ensure effective implementation. The UK has raised public country-by-country reporting with international partners and the Government will continue to engage with our international partners, including at EU level, on this issue.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions the Government had at the June 2017 G20 summit on a multilateral agreement on public country-by-country reporting.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The UK has led international action to enhance tax transparency. This included initiating the international work on country-by-country reporting during its G8 Presidency in 2013, and being the first country to commit to implement the OECD model for country-by country reporting with legislation in the 2015 Finance Act.
The Government believes a multilateral approach to public country-by-country reporting would help ensure effective implementation. The UK has raised public country-by-country reporting with international partners and the Government will continue to engage with our international partners, including at EU level, on this issue.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will estimate the amount of revenue lost to the Exchequer as a result of tax avoidance in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
For the latest five years for which the requested information is held, it is available in the Measuring Tax Gaps publication at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps
Please refer to table 1.5 on page 19
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will estimate the amount of revenue lost to the Exchequer as a result of tax evasion in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
For the latest five years for which the requested information is held, it is available in the Measuring Tax Gaps publication at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps
Please refer to table 1.5 on page 19
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many meetings he has had with representatives from the UK's Overseas Territories on public registers of beneficial ownership in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor has meetings with a wide variety of organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel.