The taxman was yesterday accused of letting Britain’s biggest phone company off paying up to £8 billion in a “sweetheart” deal not available to ordinary people. MPs attacked HM Revenue and Customs for allowing Vodafone to pay just £1.25 billion to settle a tax dispute and claimed the amount lost to taxpayers lost may be even higher than previously thought.
They even took the extraordinary step of forcing Anthony Inglese, HMRC’s top lawyer, to swear on the Bible that he was telling the truth about a series of deals with major companies and banks.
One of the last times a committee of MPs asked for an oath to be sworn was the appearance of Neil Hamilton, the Tory MP, during their cash-for-questions investigation in 1997.
HMRC has always refused to reveal how much it believes Vodafone owed in total.
Dave Hartnett, permanent secretary for tax at HMRC, claimed earlier this year that reports saying Vodafone owed £6 billion were “absurd”.
However, Stephen Barclay, an MP on the public accounts committee, yesterday put the figure even higher than that.
“We are looking at potentially £8 billion of tax lost,” he said during a hearing. “We’re looking at a company that was given five years to pay even though it was sitting on a cash pile.”
Despite being HMRC’s most senior solicitor, Mr Inglese admitted he was “not what you’d call a tax lawyer” and said he could not comment on the deal.
“All I can say is lawyers were involved throughout,” he said.
The MPs suggested there need to be much greater oversight of tax deals with big companies. (Really?)
Read more here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8875360/Taxman-accused-of-letting-Vodafone-off-8-billion.html
