MPs sign anti-avoidance EDM
MPs call for investigation into tax avoidance industry in the UK
MPs have signed an early day motion calling for an investigation into the
activities of the tax avoidance industry in the UK.
The parliamentary motion, sponsored by Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for
Grimsby, calls for an investigation into ‘the activities of banks, law firms,
KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, Grant Thornton and
other firms in devising, marketing, promoting, implementing and concealing
aggressive tax avoidance schemes which have no commercial substance and whose
sole purpose is to avoid UK taxes on income and profits.’
Submitted on June 21, it has attracted 17 signatures, and will remain
available for MPs to sign over the course of this parliamentary session.
Mitchell has been an outspoken critic of the tax avoidance industry, and has
introduced EDMs on tax avoidance on a regular basis in his time in parliament,
and three since the current session began.
EDMs rarely end up on the statute book and are often used by politicians more
to highlight issues than to introduce legislation.