Conservative and UKIP MEPs yesterday voted against proposals in the European Parliament aimed at making the tax system fairer, and at cracking down on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.
 
The European Parliament's Annual Tax Report put forward concrete proposals to tackle immoral tax practices - including measures to make companies report where they make their profits and where they pay their taxes, and an agreed Europe-wide definition of tax havens that would see them named and shamed.
 
The report was passed by a cross-party selection of MEPs by 444 votes to 110, with 41 abstensions.
 
Anneliese Dodds MEP, member of the European Parliament economic and monetary affairs committee, and Socialists & Democrats Group co-rapporteur of the parliament’s legislative initiative report on tax avoidance, said:
 
"Yet again, the Tories and UKIP have shown whose side they are really on. They talk the talk about cracking down on tax fiddling, but when the time comes for action they vote in favour of more secrecy and more inequality.
 
"The proposals in the Annual Tax Report are about making society fairer, and giving small businesses a chance, about stopping the situation where a family-run business in the UK dutifully pays the right rate of corporation tax, while a large multinational corporation negotiates a sweetheart deal to reduce its tax rate to almost zero.
 
"It's clear from today's vote that the Tories and UKIP are once again on the side of vested interests against the interests of working people."
 
 
For further information, please contact Shamik Das on 0044 7920 441362 or 0032 479 790053.
 
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