ONE-THIRD OF BIGGEST BUSINESSES PAY NO TAX

ONE-THIRD OF BIGGEST BUSINESSES PAY NO TAX

By Vanessa Houlder

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Almost a third of the UK's 700 biggest businesses paid no corporation tax in the 2005-06 financial year while another 30 per cent paid less than £10m each, an official study has found. Of the tax paid by these businesses, two-thirds came from just three industries – banking, insurance and oil and gas – while the alcohol, tobacco, car and real estate sectors contributed only a few hundred million pounds. Altogether, these large public and private companies paid £24.4bn in 2005-06, or just more than half of all the corporation tax paid, according to a National Audit Office analysis of the tax raised from the 700 companies handled by the large business service of Revenue & Customs.