David Cameron rules out 'naming and shaming' multinationals who fail to pay their 'fair share' of tax Downing Street said the Prime Minister was opposed to any move that would undermine taxpayer confidentiality despite criticism by a powerful committee of MPs that the Government "lacked determination" to tackle the problem. Margaret Hodge, chairman of the powerful cross-party Public Accounts Committee said tax officials needed to be more aggressive in tackling legal avoidance by firms such as Amazon, Google and Starbucks who pay next to no tax in the UK. She was speaking as a report released by her committee said offenders should be named and shamed by the Government and face prosecution rather than being offered sweetheart deals. However this was ruled out by the Prime Minister's official spokesman who said: "An important part of our tax system is taxpayer confidentiality. We would not want to do anything to undermine that. The Chancellor, George Osborne, today announced an extra £150m of funding for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) this week to help crack down on avoidance by global companies with British operations, which the Treasury predicts will raise up to £2bn within two years. But in a hard-hitting report released today, the cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) called for the Government to take an even tougher line. It said legislative change was needed to ensure that multinationals report their tax practices transparently, and with prosecutions rather than deals for any companies which were found to be avoiding tax in an illegal way. When we looked at these three big global companies - and they are were just examples, others do the same - I think that HMRC, the tax authorities, aren't aggressive enough or assertive enough in trying to make sure that the claims these companies made are valid. The little bookshop, the corner bookshop, or the small coffee shop in your high street, they don't have the advantage of an army of very, very well-paid and qualified accountants and lawyers to defend them - they pay their taxes. Starbucks, Google, and Amazon don't pay at the same rate, and that's an unfair competitive advantage to the global companies.