3 March 2016
Unless you show us you’ve paid your taxes properly, we won’t use your company any longer. The Conservative-led Council voted to consider agreeing to this issue or not via a separate committee.
According to the HMRC, tax avoidance and evasion costs the tax-payer at least £30 billion a year with companies like Google, Starbucks and Amazon caught not paying the tax they should.
Local resident and Christian Aid campaigner Carol Linfield said, “People already rightly expect their local council to screen out suppliers engaged in fraud, corruption and child labour. Tax dodging can and should be added to this list, especially at a time when local government is faced with so many painful cuts to local services. I look forward to Solihull Council committing to ending all use of tax dodging very soon."
Green Party councillor and Leader of the Opposition James Burn (who put the motion) said, “Dodging taxes costs the tax payer at least £30 billion a year. That money could build 300,000 council homes or fund over a million nurses for the NHS. The time has come for Solihull Council to do its part in clamping down on companies who think dodging tax is OK.”
