Council bosses at West Dunbartonshire have promised to crack down on businesses engaging in tax avoidance - part of the local authority’s fair tax declaration strategy.
During the most recent full council meeting, members unanimously agreed to pass a motion, tabled by Labour councillor Gurpreet Singh Johal, to take steps to ensure companies in the area are paying their fair share of tax employment.
West Dunbartonshire Council has also promised to “lead by example” and demonstrate good practice when it comes to tax conduct and promote a fair tax mark certificate to any business in which the council has a significant stake and where corporation tax is due.
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During the meeting, opposition leader councillor Karan Conaghan said: “Too often we hear about a crack down on benefit fraud and that kind of behaviour. There is not enough of a focus on tax avoidance.
“What is lost in tax avoidance is a far greater amount of money than anything that is lost to the country in terms of people not receiving the right amount of benefits.
“I have been aware of concerned constituents about this issue so I was really pleased to see it being brought forward.”
Members also agreed to support calls to reform EU, UK and Scots law to enable councils to better penalise poor tax conduct and reward good tax conduct.
Councillor Jim Bollan, of the community party, added: “This is one of the best motions that has been brought before council recently in my opinion. It goes to the heart of the matter. It is about who owns the wealth and who owns the power.
“As a socialist I have always believed that distribution of wealth and power to the working class is the cornerstone of what we should be trying to achieve and this motion looks at the redistribution of wealth away from the people who put their money abroad.
“This is a great step forward and I would like to thank councillor Johal for bringing this to our attention.”
Officers have now been asked to bring a report on the matter to a future full council meeting.
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