Personal responsibility for corporate tax submissions - at last!

The new budget is certainly making a stab at closing various tax loopholes – probably to the delight of the tax avoidance industry which will make loads of dosh from figuring out how to circumvent them. But there’s one thing that Darling definitely got right:

“Accountability of senior accounting officers

The Government today announces a measure to establish a statutory requirement for senior accounting officers of major corporates to certify personally that adequate controls to prepare accurate tax computations are in place.”

It’s a strange fact that ordinary decent people tend to throw ethics to the winds when they can hide behind corporate invulnerability. Introducing the principle of individual responsibility should do a lot to change that.