I believe that international cooperation is important in tackling global tax challenges, and I urge Ministers to actively engage with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s and UN’s work on tax policy.
It is vital that international tax rules and standards are effective as well as inclusive. To this end, the previous Government supported consensus-based reform of the international tax rules through the OECD, including through the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework (with over 130 members) and the Global Forum (with over 160 members), in which non-OECD members participate on an equal footing. This reflects the strong expertise that sits within the OECD and the steps taken in recent years to become ever-more inclusive of the needs of developing countries.
I welcome that the amount of unpaid UK tax (the tax gap) has fallen from 7.5 per cent in 2005/06 to 4.8 per cent in 2021/22. I am, however, concerned about the Government's commitment to further reducing the tax gap. In addition to offering piecemeal investment and an increase of compliance officers, the Government must set out comprehensive measures to crack down on non-compliance.
