South Lanarkshire Council has signed up to the Fair Tax Declaration and will endorse the principles of the pledge.
At yesterday's full council meeting, council leader Joe Fagan passed a motion to pledge to endorse the principles of the Councils for Fair Tax Declaration. His motion was seconded by Councillor Maureen Devlin and voted in by elected members.
The declaration states that the council will lead by example and demonstrate good practice in its tax conduct throughout all its activities.
This includes encouraging contractors to implement IR35 robustly and pay a fair share of employment taxes. It also includes discouraging the use of offshore vehicles for the purchase of land and property, particularly where this leads to reduced payments of stamp duty.
The declaration also includes discouraging the use of not-for-profit structures where these are used inappropriately as an artificial device to reduce the payment of tax and business rate as well as encouraging clarity on the beneficial ownership of suppliers and their consolidated profit and loss position, given the lack of clarity could be strong indicators of poor financial probity and weak financial standing.
Councillor Fagan said: “I am pleased that my colleagues agreed to support this motion today.
“As a council, we will also promote Fair Tax Mark certification for any business in which it has a significant stake and where corporation tax is due.
“The pledge includes a commitment to join in and support Fair Tax Week events in the area, and celebrate the tax contribution made by responsible businesses who say what they pay with pride.
“We will also support calls for urgent reform of EU, UK and Scots law to enable municipalities to revise their procurement policies and better penalise poor tax conduct and reward good tax conduct.”
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