Last week, Starbucks caved into public pressure and promised to pay £20m to the Treasury over the next two years. However the trigger more criticism of "optional" tax payments.
George Osborne has pledged give the OECD "more resources" to fund a clamp-down to ensure global firms pay their "proper share of taxes." Pascal Saint–Amans, the director of the OECD's centre for tax policy and administration, said that the issue of tax avoidance is now recognised as a "political concern."
At the weekend it emerged that Microsoft pays no UK tax on £1.7bn of online revenues. Although it pays full corporation tax on its other units, the US technology group is understood to be channelling online payments for its Windows 8 operating system and other downloads of software through Luxembourg and Ireland, where corporation tax is lower than the UK.
As a result, Microsoft's Irish registered company, Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd, reported £1.7bn of revenues from the UK on which the company has paid no UK corporation tax.
Microsoft has denied any wrongdoing in the US and said that it complies with tax laws.
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