In a recent poll on attitudes to corporate tax more than 100 individuals in the UK’s leading businesses and more than 500 SME decision makers and members of the general public revealed that the business elite are almost twice as likely as SMEs to take advantage of tax planning to reduce the amount of tax that they have to pay.
The survey suggests that the recent high profile coverage of large organisations approach to tax management may be having an impact on company behaviour as it found that 24% (10% down) believe their organisations will be looking to minimise tax in five years time. SME’s, however, this situation is reversed and is up by 3% with more saying they will use tax planning in the future.
Research suggests that the public have a slightly more positive view of how large companies will handle their future tax affairs as there is a drop in those who think they will take advantage of tax planning. Figures are down (57%) while more (21%) believe big organisations will comply with the spirit and letter of the law in five years’ time. There is little change in those who believe they will take the views of wider stakeholders into account.