Consultation on improving large business tax compliance

28 July 2015

At Summer Budget 2015, the government confirmed its intention to consult on measures intended to improve large business tax compliance.

The consultation ‘Improving Large Business Tax Compliance’ includes proposals to introduce:

• A legislative requirement for all large businesses to publish their tax strategy, enabling public scrutiny of their approach towards tax planning and tax compliance;
• A voluntary ‘Code of Practice on Taxation for Large Business’, which sets out the behaviours which HMRC expects from its large business customers; and
• A narrowly targeted ‘Special Measures’ regime to tackle the small number of large businesses that persistently undertake aggressive tax planning, or refuse to engage with HMRC in an open and collaborative manner.

These measures are designed to drive further behavioural change in the large business population, embedding best practice in tax compliance in the population as a whole and equipping HMRC with additional tools to tackle the small number of large businesses which continue to engage in tax avoidance or aggressive tax planning, or resist full and open engagement with HMRC.

This consultation closes on 14 October 2015.