ARTICLE · 04 MAY 2011

Tax Arbitrage - Book Review

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Even before the global financial crisis there has been controversy about the extent to which multi-national companies (and particularly global banks) are able to minimise their tax bill - allowing for a low effective rate of tax (in some cases, substantially below the headline rate).

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Robin Amos

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"Tax arbitrage – the trawling of the international tax system", by Nigel Feetham

Book Review by Robin Amos

Even before the global financial crisis there has been controversy about the extent to which multi-national companies (and particularly global banks) are able to minimise their tax bill - allowing for a low effective rate of tax (in some cases, substantially below the headline rate). Anyone interested in this issue can find commentary everywhere (via Google try searching "Vodafone tax" for example), but unsurprisingly mostly critical. In the UK especially, the subject is very topical, making front page news on a regular basis, particularly so since the activities of the pressure group calling itself "UK Uncut" commenced. Household name companies have been criticized for lowering their taxes through supposedly clever but legal tax avoidance schemes. This debate is also political in the fullest sense.

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