• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Mullen Stoker

Mullen Stoker

Chartered Accountants in Durham

Call Us Now 0191 374 0300

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Phone
  • Twitter
  • Services
    • Accountancy & Tax
    • IT Solutions
    • Business Services
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Our Team
  • News and Views
  • Online Resources
    • Calculators
    • Tax Rates & Tables
    • Downloadable Forms
    • Tax Application
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • Client Login

International tax competitiveness

David Gauke, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, recently gave a speech to the Lord Mayor’s Taxation Forum. His presentation focussed on international tax competitiveness, and how the UK’s system fares compared to our overseas competitors.

Here’s an extract of his comments:

Competitiveness

“Since 2010 we’ve cut corporation tax from 28% to 21%. And this time next year it will fall again, to just 20%. To spur innovation, we’ve introduced the Patent Box and the ‘above the line’ tax credit for Research and Development.

  • we’ve modernised our Controlled Foreign Company (CFC) regime
  • we’ve cultivated a generous environment for oil and gas exploration
  • we’re supporting the creative sector through a number of targeted tax reliefs

And at the Budget last month, we announced further tax incentives to support business, by:

  • doubling the Annual Investment Allowance
  • increasing the R&D credit for innovative companies
  • overhauling the UK Export Finance direct lending programme

It is not just about the competitive tax rates, reliefs and allowances. How we make tax law is important. In 2010, we published a Corporate Tax Roadmap, setting out what we were going to do and also, perhaps more importantly, explaining what we were not going to do.

We have also established a new tax policy-making process, ensuring proper consultation and the early publication of draft legislation – enabling us to refine and improve our legislation. And the importance of tax administration can be under-estimated. We recognise that our tax administrators need to understand major taxpayers. We’ve made sure that the largest two thousand corporations in the UK have their own dedicated relationship managers at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, who can support those organisations and help to ensure that they are paying the correct amount of tax.

And that system exists, because it’s in everyone’s interests to have a strong working relationship that will ensure revenues are paid fully, and that any disputes or queries can be played out quickly without expensive litigation.

This is not about being a soft touch. Tough action is taken wherever necessary. But a constructive relationship built on trust between the taxpayer and the tax collector continues to bring in the revenue for the UK exchequer and add to the attractiveness of the UK system.”

Be interesting to see how this “carrot and stick” approach works in the real world as the UK promotes itself as a low-tax jurisdiction, but beware if you don’t pay your dues…

Category iconUncategorized

Xero Gold Partners
ICAEW Chartered Accountants
Clear transparent pricing champions

Footer

LATEST NEWS

  • How artificial intelligence is changing accountancy 19th June 2025
  • New identity verification rules at Companies House 17th June 2025
  • Hospitality sector to benefit from savings 12th June 2025

INFORMATION

Sunderland Accountancy

Durham Accountancy

South Shields Accountancy

Newsletter

Business & Tax News

The Budget

ABOUT US

We bring a fresh, dynamic and friendly approach to Accountancy services. We are proud to say you will not find Mullen Stoker to be a stereotypical Accountancy Practice as we have new ideas, add value to what are known to be more traditional accountancy services and are able to provide high quality IT Solutions

We use telephone tracking numbers to link a user’s call to the marketing channel that they originated from. This is done using cookies, you can choose to decline cookies using your browser settings if you would prefer not to be tracked. We may record calls for training or monitoring purposes.

This firm is not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but we are able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of investment services to clients because we are members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. We can provide these investment services if they are an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide.

Copyright © 2025 Mullen Stoker Chartered Accountants · Privacy Policy · Terms & Conditions