By Nigel Nelson

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell says Labour would insist all firms operating in Britain with more than 250 staff must declare full worldwide assets, allowing them to be taxed on those assets

A mind-boggling £13trillion of assets in major firms who do business in the UK are squirrelled away in tax havens abroad says Labour.

And Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell will tomorrow tell the BBC’s Andrew Marr how Chancellor Philip Hammond could grab the tax that multinationals should pay on it.

The £13million-million is six times the UK debt. In £50 notes two pallets high it would fill 13 Wembley Stadiums.

Mr McDonnell says Labour would insist all firms operating in Britain with more than 250 staff must declare full worldwide assets.

It would stop multinationals hiding profits in up to 80 foreign boltholes – including British dependencies such as the Virgin and Cayman Islands.

Mr McDonnell writes in the Sunday Mirror: “They should be proud to help keep [the UK] a good place to do business.”

Last year US giants Netflix and eBay together paid £1.9million in UK tax – yet eBay said revenue here was more than $1billion and Netflix is paid by 6.5 million Brits.

Viewpoint by John McDonnell, Shadow Chancellor

When Philip Hammond isn’t trying to save his job from Tory MPs who want him sacked, the Chancellor says there’s no money to properly pay our hard-pressed public sector workers – branding them “overpaid”. He has no money to stop cuts to in-work benefits like Universal Credit, or end the NHS crisis.

Yet he can find billions to hand to the DUP to prop up the failing government. And still finds billions in tax giveaways to big multinationals. But worse than putting a wealthy few first is the Tories’ lack of desire to gather in the £36billion in uncollected tax.

There’s also an estimated £13trillion hidden from the taxman in offshore trusts.

Theresa May is tough on hard-working families but soft on tax dodgers. These multinationals should be grateful for access to UK customers. They benefit and make a profit from one of the richest countries on the planet.

Taxpayers in this country help make this a marketplace they wish to do business in. So they should be proud to pay their fair share in taxes to help keep this country a good place to do business. Instead of firing tax collectors and squabbling, this weak Tory government should be stopping firms swinging the lead.

The next Labour government will clamp down on tax avoidance and build an economy which works for the many, not the few.

IMAGES:

Tax havens like the Cayman Islands are used by major firms (Image: Getty Images)

The Shadow Chancellor will inform Philip Hammond how to increase the tax yield from major firms (Image: Getty Images Europe)

John McDonnell says the tax on major firms could fund the rise in wages for public sector workers (Image: Daily Mirror)

For more on this story go to; http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/labour-takes-aim-tax-havens-11343866