The National Audit Office has just published a report that looked at five large tax settlements agreed by HM Revenue & Customs in the UK. Although it expressed some concerns, the NAO concluded that all five settlements were reasonable and the overall outcome for the Exchequer was good.
Vodafone has issued a response, revealing that it was ‘case D’ in the report. The company concluded a legal dispute with HMRC in 2010, agreeing a tax payment of £1.25 billion.
Andy Halford, Vodafone Group Chief Financial Officer, said “For more than a year, Vodafone has been falsely accused of improper conduct. As we have consistently stated, those attacks were unwarranted and unjust. We acted with the utmost propriety throughout the HMRC settlement process, and the National Audit Office has now concluded that the outcome was good for the UK taxpayer. We welcome this vindication. Vodafone has always been a responsible company with a strong commitment to managing our affairs properly and diligently within the law and with full disclosure to all relevant tax authorities. Vodafone is a long-standing and significant contributor to the UK as a whole, not least in our role as the biggest dividend payer in the UK. We returned £6.7 billion in cash to our shareholders this year, who include virtually every major investment fund relied upon by millions of UK pensioners and savers.”
[Report (pdf)]