Charity targets Big Four in tax dodge campaign

Christian Aid is urging the Big Four accounting firms to back a new initiative to stamp out tax avoidance schemes by multinational corporations operating in developing countries.

The charity says that current accounting rules allow multinationals to ‘wriggle out’ of paying as much as $160bn in tax a year – money it feels should be used to fuel development in third world economies.

It is calling for a new set of global accounting rules to ensure that large corporations account for their profits on a country-by-country basis, which would allow governments of poorer countrie