- Treasury minister David Gauke has 'wooed global corporations over tax'
- Said to have spent thousands travelling to 'promote the UK tax system'
- Comes after Google struck deal to pay £130million to cover back taxes
- Government has also faced criticism over Facebook and Amazon's tax
A Treasury minister has flown round the world to woo global corporations with promises of cosy arrangements with the taxman, it emerged last night.
David Gauke, the third most senior figure in George Osborne’s department, told US firms that it was not up to politicians to decide what is a ‘fair amount’ of tax.
Just days after Mr Gauke appeared in the Commons to defend the controversial Google tax deal, it has emerged he spent thousands of pounds of public money travelling across the globe to ‘promote the UK tax system’.
The minister outlined how the international giants would be given VIP treatment by HM Revenue & Customs.
He pledged that if their firm was large enough, the taxman would provide ‘relationship managers’ to help them avoid ‘expensive litigation’ over tax disputes.
And he told them the amount of tax that international companies pay should not be dictated by ‘what a group of politicians think is the “fair amount”.’
Mr Gauke declared: ‘The UK government believes in a low corporation rate. We believe in a simple system that taxes profits in the UK.
'And we believe in good working relationships between companies and tax officials.’
He warned that there would be no ‘preferential special deals’ for big businesses.
However, the arrangements for big business present a sharp contrast to the way in which HMRC deals with ordinary taxpayers – including small businesses.
Only last month the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee called HMRC’s services ‘worse than abysmal’ after it was revealed the average person calling its helpline to discuss tax queries waited an ‘appalling’ 38 minutes to get through.
Google tax deal: Chancellor George Osborne has continued to claim he had presided over a ‘major success’
Mr Gauke flew to an exclusive event in Los Angeles in April 3013 to say his government would welcome businesses ‘with open arms’ if they decide to come over here.
A report issued by the Treasury days later as a brochure for overseas businesses advertised the UK’s ‘flexible and competitive rules for taxing the profits of multinationals’.
Ministers are already facing controversy over the tax affairs of web giants Google and Facebook. Critics will ask why it was that large multinationals were offered such cosy deals with HMRC at a time when small businesses found it almost impossible to speak to an adviser.
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