She’s on a roll.
Margaret Hodge, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee and permanent fixture on the Today programme is on a roll.
At the Public Accounts Committee Tax hearings, Google asserted “It’s a complicated system, but we comply with the law”.
Mrs Hodge wasn’t having any of that. Oh no!
“We are not accusing you of being illegal, we are accusing you of being immoral” responded Nanny Hodge.
Companies out there hold onto that quote! Ponder it! Internalise it! Use it as your screensaver!
Compliance as a tax defence is dead. Dead. D-E-A-D.
If that’s a dead defence what’s a live one?
Maybe communicating exactly what tax you do pay and what you think about it. Rio Tinto has.
But that’s a story for another day.
In the meantime repeat after me: “Compliance as a tax defence is dead”.