Harvie: No bailouts for tax dodgers
Scottish Greens Co-Leader Patrick Harvie MSP has called on the Scottish Government to stop bailing out tax avoiders.
Speaking at a virtual questions session this afternoon, Mr Harvie highlighted an announcement by the Welsh Government yesterday that it won’t give bailout cash to firms based in tax havens and reiterated his call for the Scottish Government to adopt the same approach.
Patrick Harvie MSP said:
“The current crisis has had a significant economic impact and it is right that government makes support available to businesses. It cannot be right however that such support is made available to companies that deliberately starve our public services of cash by setting up in tax havens to avoid paying tax.
“When I first raised this issue with the Scottish Government three weeks ago the Economy Secretary was concerned that she may not have the powers to act. Now that the Welsh Government has shown that devolved administrations do indeed have the necessary powers, the Scottish Government must stop equivocating and act without delay. If it fails to do so I will seek to amend the emergency coronavirus legislation myself to include the simple proposition that tax dodgers don’t get bailouts.”
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