Chancellor Aims To Stop Those Who ‘Abuse’ Tax System

Chancellor George Osborne has announced in his keynote address at the Conservative party conference that he is stepping up his efforts to clamp down on tax avoidance by technology companies.

Speaking in Birmingham where Mr Osborne focused on the importance of bringing down Britain's budget deficit, Mr Osborne pledged to shut down ‘loopholes’ which allow multinational companies to lower their tax payments by hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

He said that while Britain offered “some of the lowest business taxes in the world, we expect those taxes to be paid - not avoided.”

He added that: "Some technology companies go to extraordinary lengths to pay little or no tax here.

"If you abuse our tax system, you abuse the trust of the British people. And my message to those companies is clear: we will put a stop to it."

Phil Berwick, partner* at Irwin Mitchell, said:

* Non-lawyer