Opposition Day — Tax Avoidance and Multinational Companies — 3 Feb 2016 at 16:53

Alan Whitehead MP, Southampton, Test voted against noting Government action to promote international cooperation in relation to clamping down on tax avoidance by multinational companies.

The majority of MPs voted to note Government action to promote international cooperation in relation to clamping down on tax avoidance by multinational companies.

There was no active clause in the agreed motion; it was merely noting, not calling for action.

In their previous vote MPs had voted to reject the motion:

  • That this House
  • notes the agreement reached between HM Revenue and Customs and Google to pay £130 million in respect of taxes due over the period 2005 to 2015; and
  • calls on the Government to publish the full details so that the British public can judge whether this is, as stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a major success; and
  • further calls for a swift international agreement to implement country-by-country reporting of company accounts.

An amendment replacing the above text supported by the majority of MPs taking part in this vote stated:

  • leave out from “House” in Line 1 to end and add:
  • notes that the Government has taken action to promote international cooperation in relation to clamping down on tax avoidance by multinational companies, challenging the international tax rules which have not been updated since they were first developed in the 1920s, that multilateral cooperation at an international level has included the UK playing a leading role in the G20-OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project to review all international tax rules and increase tax transparency, and as part of that, the UK was the first country to commit to implementing the OECD country-by-country reporting model within domestic legislation, that the Government recognises the case for publishing country-by-country reports on a multilateral basis, that the Government has introduced more than 40 changes to tax law, that the various measures taken by the Government have included the introduction of a diverted profits tax aimed at targeting companies who use contrived arrangements to divert profits from the UK, stopping the use of offshore employment intermediaries to avoid employer National Insurance contributions, stopping companies from obtaining a tax advantage by entering into contrived arrangements to turn old tax losses or restricted use into more versatile in-year deductions, and requiring taxpayers who are using avoidance schemes that have been defeated through the courts to pay the tax in dispute with HM Revenue and Customs upfront, and that the Government is committed to going further, enabling HM Revenue and Customs to recover an additional £7.2 billion over the Parliament.”

Debate in Parliament |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con299 (+2 tell) 0091.2%
DUP4 1062.5%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 2066.7%
Lab0 197 (+2 tell)085.8%
LDem0 000.0%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 30100.0%
SNP0 51094.4%
UKIP0 10100.0%
UUP0 20100.0%
Total:303 261088.1%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Jeffrey M. DonaldsonLagan ValleyDUP (front bench)no

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