Big companies in Britain paying less tax now than they did 12 years ago

Big companies in Britain now pay less tax than they did 12 years ago despite a big jump in profitability, a Reuters analysis of official data has shown.

Tax campaigners say the trend is the clearest signal yet that tax avoidance has blossomed under a more business-friendly strategy at the UK tax authority Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

Large companies’ payments of corporation tax — the UK equivalent of corporate income tax — totalled £21bn (€25.9bn) in 2011/12, data shows.