TAX AVOIDANCE BY UK COMPANIES

That this House deplores the involvement of major British companies such as Tesco, HMV, WH Smith, Asda and others in multi-million pound tax-dodging operations by selling goods online to UK customers from overseas locations which are not subject to United Kingdom or European Union Value Added Tax legislation; warns that such operations are detrimental to British jobs and to the British economy with the loss of tax revenue to pay for public services in the UK; further warns that these activities are also environmentally damaging because of the need to transport goods to such overseas locations and then post them to the UK; urges the Government to publicly make known to such famous UK companies that it deplores business practices which are against the UK's national interests and which damage smaller UK retailers; and calls on the Government to take measures to close the tax loophole being exploited by companies whose public image needs to be exposed by such hypocrisy.