Tories: 'Publish ECJ damage or be damned'

Gordon Brown should publish figures on the impact of the group litigation
orders ‘or be damned,’ a senior Tory Treasury spokesman said today.

Writing exclusively for AccountancyAge.com, Mark Hoban, Tory MP for Fareham
and the shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, calls on Treasury ministers
to be open about the costs of the actions, which some have estimated at up to
£20bn a year.

The issue of how much the GLOs are set to cost the government has proved
contentious. Experts put the damage from the six major cases, which challenge
aspects of UK law under EU single market rules, at about £20bn, but the Treasury
has refused requests from Accountancy Age to reveal the total estimates
of losses it has calculated.

In the piece, Hoban says that the refusal to own up to the numbers reflects a
failure to engage in a debate about Europe and tax: ‘European law will continue
to force us to adjust our tax regime and our European competitors are cutting
their corporation tax to improve their competitiveness.

‘By not publishing their estimate of the financial exposure from the Group
Litigation Orders, the government appears to be shying away from a public debate
about the future of tax.’