WIREDGOV

The UK's largest civil service union is backing a ground-breaking campaign launched yesterday to promote transparency in how big companies pay their taxes.

As part of its ongoing campaign against tax avoidance and evasion PCS, which represents more than 50,000 workers in HM Revenue and Customs, has worked closely with the creators of the new 'fair tax mark'.

This follows the close ties the union has developed with tax campaigner Richard Murphy, the Tax Justice Network and UK Uncut to put tax avoidance at the top of the political agenda.

Now the union and campaigners want to also highlight good practice by companies and offer others the chance to put their houses in order.

The tax mark assesses large UK companies annually on:

• Whether they disclose how much profit they make in the UK
• Whether the tax they pay in the UK appears reasonable
• Whether it seems likely the company is avoiding tax

Firms are then graded using a traffic light system, where red means they may not be paying their fair share or being transparent enough, and green means they are awarded a fair tax mark.

The union has long highlighted the absurdity of HMRC cutting thousands of jobs and closing offices when more than £120 billion is lost to our economy every year through avoided, evaded and uncollected tax.