Reports

TaxWatch publishes regular reports that seek to inform debate on the tax system in the UK. You can find an archive of all of TaxWatch’s reports on this page.

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R&D - Still changing after all these years

R&D tax reliefs are not working as intended.

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Putting a stop to the tax fraud game

‘Legal’ tax avoidance could actually be prosecuted as tax fraud.

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Etsy - Another US tech company with questions to answer

TaxWatch research uncovers Etsy’s corporate structure which uses an Irish unlimited company to minimise revenues in the UK

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State of Tax Administration 2022

TaxWatch’s first annual report on the UK Government’s administration and enforcement of the tax system.

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A fair distribution?

US Government set to raise 3x more than rest of the world combined in tax payments from four tech companies after Global Tax Deal.

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Will the OECD’s global tax deal raise more from tech companies in the UK?

Analysis finds G7 tax deal represents a tax cut for big tech in the UK.

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The tax fraud gap – 2021 edition

Tax Fraud Gap at least £15.2bn in 2020.

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Digital Giants and VAT in Africa

Tech companies fail to collect VAT in Africa.

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Photo: Dominik Bartsch

Eight tech companies in the UK avoided an estimated £1.5bn in 2019

Multinational tech giants continue to avoid billions in UK tax.

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The Deloitte Disaggregation

Deloitte and Sports Direct’s major international VAT avoidance scheme revealed.

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Fraud and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

We reveal the scale of fraud within the furlough scheme, and look at HMRC’s response.

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The scales of justice

Equality before the law?

We reveal the huge disparity between the way in which benefits crime is treated when compared to tax crime.

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What gets measured gets done?

We ask whether the current metrics used by HMRC are sufficiently robust to allow Parliament and other interested parties to hold the government to account

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No Time To Pay Tax?

The James Bond films have been heavily subsidised by the British taxpayer, while at the same time the company behind the franchise has been minimising its tax bills in the UK.

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Rogue Landlords

Tax evasion by residential landlords could be costing the Treasury up to £1.73 billion a year, a new analysis by TaxWatch has found. This is more than three times the amount reported for 2010.

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GE9X Engine

Around the world with $5bn – HMRC’s allegations of tax fraud at General Electric revealed

HMRC have alleged that General Electric fraudulently obtained a tax advantage in the UK worth US$1bn by failing to disclose documents relating to the group’s financing arrangements.

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Monitoring the Bailout

We look at government aid going to companies substantially owned by tax exiles or tax haven companies, and those with a history of known tax avoidance.

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Paying in Equally

Governments that wish to restrict bailouts going to tax avoiders should insist that companies sign up to new rules on their tax behaviour.

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Netflix

No tax and chill: Netflix’s offshore millions

Netflix, with over 10m UK subscribers, is paying no UK income tax. Our report reveals how through an elaborate international structure the online giant streamed up to $430m in profits into tax havens in 2018.

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Swedish goats, Japanese hedgehogs
and Batman

£324 million has been spent on subsidising “culturally British” games, including Batman, Sonic, and Goat Simulator. To receive this relief, developers have to pass the BFI’s test – which is almost impossible to fail

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Global Video Games Giants

Four large companies have claimed close to half of all Video Games Tax Relief (VGTR) since the scheme’s inception. The cost of Video Games Tax Relief has spiralled to over £100m a year, and since 2014 has seen WarnerMedia claim £60m, Sony £30m, and Sega £20m.

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World of Taxcraft

Our research reveals how the publisher of hit games including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush moved €5bn to companies in Bermuda and Barbados between 2013-2017. The company is currently under investigation by tax authorities in the UK, Sweden and France.

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Gaming the Tax System

Grand Theft Auto V is the most commercially successful product in the history of the entertainment industry, generating over $5bn in revenue. Despite this, the British makers of the game have paid nothing in corporation tax and received £42m in relief.

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A Question of Royalties

- A practical solution to the problem of taxing international tech companies in the UK

For ten years tax avoidance by large multinational technology firms has been at the top of the global political agenda, but so far no effective solutions have been found. In this paper TaxWatch UK sets out a proposal that will ensure that tech companies operating in the UK are properly taxed on their profits.

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The government tax break worth £100m+ for Heathrow

For years Heathrow made billions in operating profit, but paid nothing in tax. We reveal how OECD attempts to tighten up the tax system have been undermined by the UK government, giving the shareholders of Heathrow a benefit worth more than £100m a year.

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Corporate tax and tech
companies in the UK

– Still crazy after all these years

The world’s largest tech companies have become known for aggressively avoiding tax. Measured in billions of dollars these titans of the US make massive profits but pay relatively little tax in the UK. We have estimated the UK revenues and profits of five of the largest tech companies in the world and calculated the tax they might have been expected to pay, if those profits were reported in the UK.

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