QUOTE (SirWilliam @ Nov 19 2017, 11:34 AM)
Surely the idea is that HM collector of Taxes closes any loopholes that allow avoidance of said payment ? They are , after all , paid to do exactly that .
Surely they are paid to collect taxes - not to enact legislation. The Chancellor is the man responsible for tax law.
I suspect the problem is with the tax itself - the method used by the likes of Starbucks, Apple etc is cleary a corporation tax avoidance scheme, but I struggle to see how corporation tax rules could be adjusted to overcome it. They set up a subsiduary in Jersey or similar that the US parent licences to control brand rights in Europe - this then charges Apple UK an immense sum for the right to use the Apple brand (name, logo, etc) - enough to ensure that the profits of the UK arm is around zero. Thus Apple Jersey rakes in immense sums from the national operations all over Europe and makes an immense profit - in a country where corporation tax does not exist.
I suppose this loophole could be closed by a new 50% tax on brand rights payments - or 80% - as long as it is higher than Corporation Tax. But then we will have iPhones and Starbuck coffee imported via Jersey - with a huge mark up as they nominally pass through the tax haven - once again reducing the profitabilty of the national operations. Profits are so nebulous, so easily moved offshore by multinationals, taxing them will always be fraught with difficulty.