People could start hitting tax-avoiding companies with their wallets, HMRC suggests The field of corporate social responsibility is a relatively new area. We are beginning to see some evidence that taxpayer opinion is altering the behaviour of firms and individuals, and that's actually a helpful thing for HMRC. Ms Homer said chairmen of companies and their boards need to be clear whether their tax bills are "risky" or not. Tax avoidance is entirely legal, but consumers have begun to consider it socially unacceptable, she suggested. "It is one of the reasons we have pushed the debate with big business about tax in the boardroom," she told the MPs. It's not just something you can just push off to finance people. The main board needs to think about where a company is positioning itself. It may well be the pressure of public opinion will cause some companies to be more explicit than the annual accounts require them to be about their tax strategy. Do the people who invest in you and buy from you know about your tax strategy? Ms Homer insisted HMRC is pursuing big businesses that do not pay their tax, as MPs pointed out that £32 billion in total remained uncollected last year. She added: "I can refute any suggestion that we have been told to go easy on big business... We don't get told 'don't pursue'. We are told 'pursue vigorously'. Margaret Hodge, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said she suspects "no stringent, fair, equal effort" is put into making sure companies pay their fair share compared with individuals.