This research considers new information on the anatomy of UK corporation tax liabilities. It uses two complementary company-level data sources: anonymised corporation tax data provided for the first time on a confidential basis by HMRC, and financial accounting data from the FAME database. Each data source has advantages and disadvantages, but by combining them the report provides a detailed description of the distribution of corporation tax in the United Kingdom. Among the findings of the report are: 81% of all UK corporation tax is paid by the largest 1% of companies and over the last 10 years, multinational companies have paid 86% of all corporation tax; but within industrial sectors, the largest 100 companies generally pay less tax than other companies as a percentage of their earnings before interest and tax; and the 2010 corporation tax reforms reduced tax for 64% of companies but increased tax for 9% of companies.
Michael Devereux
