PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has refuted the allegations that it indulged in ‘mass marketing’ tax avoidance schemes to companies after a leak of hundreds of Luxembourg tax rulings.
PwC UK’s tax chief Kevin Nicholson was recalled by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) after previously giving evidence in January 2013.
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"I think what you are doing is selling tax avoidance on an industrial scale," Labour MP Margaret Hodge said to PwC’s head of tax Kevin Nicholson.
Hodge also accused Nicholson of misleading the PAC in January 2013 when he said PWC did not mass market tax products.
Nicholson firmly denied any impropriety by PwC.
The steps taken by PwC on clients’ behalf are "not schemes by any stretch of the imagination", he said. Luxembourg is competing for tax revenues by making its structure appealing for business, which has resulted in an "attractive" tax regime for financing, he added.
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By GlobalDataThe committee session follows the leak of thousands of pages of documents, which were analysed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
However, his comments were instantly dismissed by Hodge, who described Luxembourg as "a parasite state".
The committee ordered Nicholson to submit a written statement, explaining how its client Shire Pharmaceuticals’ structure was not a tax avoidance scheme, within one week.
Hodge added that the committee will "carefully" examine Nicholson’s evidence and call him back under oath if it sees fit.
It is expected that Nicholson will be grilled next month on intricate details of a host of leaked Luxembourg tax agreements, many of them relating to UK and Irish clients.
