Charity's tax research called into question

Tax experts at Oxford University have clashed with Christian Aid and Oxfam claiming they use faulty methods for gathering data which is used to attack companies for the way they manage their tax affairs in developing countries.

Both charities have released reports criticising multinationals for using transfer mispricing to shift income out of developing countries. But a report from the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation for the UK, questions the charities’ metholdology.

In response to Christian Aid research, it said: ‘This approach raises a number of questions… about the basic method.’

Alex Cobham, policy manager at Christian Aid, said the organisation modelled its methodology on that used by the US Internal Revenue Service. ‘Any methodology has to be drawn from somewhere… That same methodology has appeared in a number of finance journals.’

Richard Murphy, tax campaigner at the Tax Research Network, defended the research.

‘It’s a shoddy piece of work from a body that’s sponsored by the FTSE 100. The government should withdraw the report as its open to too much bias.’