FIRMS that avoid paying tax will be banned from getting lucrative UK Government contracts, Treasury Minister Danny Alexander insisted as he warned rich tax dodgers "we're coming to get you".
With the logo "fairer taxes in tough times" as the Liberal Democrat conference theme, Mr Alexander referred to how in the summer he had shut down the "scandalous situation", where thousands of public sector workers were being paid in a way that could help them avoid tax.
The situation was illustrated by the case of Ed Lester, head of the Student Loans Company, who was paid through a company without tax being deducted.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury said he now wanted to extend the principle – that if you are being paid public money, you should pay your taxes – to the corporate sector.
"There are thousands of large firms that receive taxpayers' money to deliver a service; they do a good job helping to deliver public services.
"But I have discovered there is nothing that prevents the very small minority of firms that don't play by the rules from winning Government contracts. That is not right, that is not fair and I am determined that it comes to an end."
He added: "If you want to work for us, you should play by our rules. Taxpayers' money should not be funding tax dodgers. So I have tasked HMRC and the Cabinet Office to come up with a workable solution."
Mr Alexander told the con-ference that having announced last year he had closed loopholes to raise an additional £2 billion, he could now announce this figure had doubled to £4bn.
The newly-established Affluent Unit within HM Revenue and Customs had in less than a year raised £44 million. It would now expand its remit to focus on Britain's wealthiest 500,000 people, those individuals with a net wealth of more than £1m.
However, Stewart Hosie for the SNP said the LibDem conference promises on tax had gone "from a cynical exercise in rewriting reality to a comical one".
He said: "Danny Alexander tells tax evaders – we are coming to get you – when the number of tax inspectors has fallen by over 1500 under his watch."
The Dundee MP added: "One could say it is a tax fraud itself to promise more tax inspectors when they have been cut by such a number."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article