Online tech giants should face ‘minimum’ corporation tax as part of a radical plan to reshape the economy, think tank says
The IPPR wants to slap web companies with a levy based on UK sales as it is impossible to know if their declared profits are genuine
ONLINE tech giants should face a “minimum” corporation tax as part of a radical plan to reshape Britain’s economy, a think tank has demanded.
The IPPR asked the Government slap web companies with a tax based on their UK sales as it was impossible to know if their declared profits were genuine.
And it called for a new regulator – OfDigi – to police digital platforms such as Facebook in same way Ofgem regulates energy giants.
In a report backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the TUC, the IPPR said economic power had to be “re-balanced” given the growing inequalities between the rich and poor, Westminster and the regions.
The move comes just weeks after the Chancellor Philip Hammond said he was considering an “Amazon tax” for online giants to help save the high street.
Archbishop Justin Welby said: “For decades the UK economy has not worked as it should, with millions of people and many parts of the country receiving less than their fair share.
“The widening gulf between rich and poor, and fears about the future among young people and their parents, have damaged our nation’s sense of itself.
“Our report shows that it doesn’t have to be like this.”
The IPPR warned the economy faced as a big a challenge now as in the late 1940s and early 1970s.
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Alongside calls for a new minimum corporation tax to tackle tax evaders, the IPPR called for higher taxes on capital gains and share sales to hit the wealthy.
It also wants a new National Investment Bank, workers on company boards, and higher pay for workers on zero hours contracts.
And it called for business rates to be replaced by a new tax based on the value of non-residential land – not the property on the site.
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