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Tax Avoidance and Evasion

The criticism of that measure in the 1997 Budget is often misplaced. It has been developed and promoted by Opposition parties and demonstrates quite vividly their financial illiteracy—that is a great pity! I have always believed that although there is a register for tax avoidance schemes, the enforcement of the registration is pathetic. Some organisations fail to register with tax avoidance schemes and accept the relatively small fine incurred as an operational cost. Why do we let people get away with that? Finally, we need to look beyond limited measures, such as a Tobin tax, on regulating the global flow of capital, and to set independently and enforce international accounting standards and equitable tax information sharing agreements—KPMG is particularly bad in that respect. Accountancy might be boring—that dreadful suggestion was made in the "Monty Python" series years ago—and taxation might be seen as a black art, but the devil is in the fiscal detail. We politicians must make a stand against endemic greed and corruption before it infects the values of fairness and equality that bind humanity.