Church Action for Tax Justice

The co-ordinator of the Church Action for Tax Justice Network shares an update on recent developments in tax justice in the latest newsletter of the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility:

Tax Justice is increasingly in the news at the present time, with the Labour Party Conference speech by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, statements earlier this month by Justin Welby and a new publication 'What to Tax?' launched at a London conference by auditors KPMG.

McDonnell announced a new initiative to bring together institutional shareholders, including churches, trades unions and pension funds, in order to create pressure on companies to pay their fair share of tax. He urged pressure to get companies to sign up to the Fair Tax Mark. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke out on tax twice in September, at the launch of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Economic Justice Commission report and then at the TUC Annual conference.

At the TUC Welby said 'when companies like Amazon can get away with paying almost nothing in tax, there is something wrong with the system', pointing out also that if they don't pay a living wage taxpayers have ultimately to support their employees through the benefits system. In 2017 Amazon tripled its profits in the UK to £72m while the tax it paid to the UK government fell from £7.4m in 2016 to £4.6m last year. This was days after the US company posted a record profit of $2.5bn (£1.9bn) in its most recent quarter. It is also the case that both the Church Commissioners and the Methodist Church hold shares in Amazon.

The IPPR report called for a radical reform of the UK tax system, especially urging the development of some form of wealth tax to try and reduce the increasing level of inequality. A more effective corporation tax is needed, especially on digital companies.

The fact that one of the 'Big Four' accountancy firms like KPMG is trying to climb on the 'Responsible Tax' bandwagon is in many ways encouraging. Attending the meeting I was able to point out that if KPMG was serious it would need to address tax scandals in which it has been involved such as Lukoil in Russia, certain Latvian banks which have now gone out of business, the Pilatus Bank in Malta which journalist Daphne Galizia was investigating when she was murdered, and the hollowing out of the South Africa tax system in which KPMG was heavily implicated

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Let's talk about TAX - What would a fair system look like?

Speaker: Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, Vice Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on Responsible Tax
Location: Thursday, 11 October, 6.30 to 8 pm, Priory Rooms, 40 Bull Street, London B4 6AF