Obama and Osborne have been quick to promise an end to avoidance. But this is best achieved through collective action
What must they make of it on the other side of the pond? Last week, two big tax stories suggested that out-of-control American tax avoiders Apple and Google would soon be brought to heel by European politicians and made to contribute more to the public finances of Ireland and the UK.
In the case of Apple, the European commission released a provisional finding that Apple’s private tax approvals from the Irish authorities, stretching back decades, were so ridiculously generous that they amounted to state aid.