Why doesn't the UK want to talk tax with Europe?

I know a lot of people don't particularly like the EU and think that MEPs are a load of people sticking their noses into the business of countries they know nothing about – but they may have a point when it comes to tax.

A committee of MEPs is trying to gain access to documents from all European countries, which set out the 'sweetheart deals' that governments do with big businesses.

These deals could be more lenient tax breaks for large companies that agree to open factories or offices in a country, which bring jobs and money into the economy.

The MEPs are interested in looking at these documents because they want to figure out why, despite lots of tough talk around corporate tax avoidance, there has been relatively little progress when it comes to making big businesses pay their fair share of tax.
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It's a question many of us, I'm sure, would like the answer to.

However, there has been opposition from a number of EU countries – 12 in fact – that don't think the committee should have the right to go snooping through their tax deals. And I am very sad to report that the UK has become country number 13 on that list.

The Treasury has said it has joined the 'no' camp in the stand against the MEPs because it would the end of 'open and frank discussions' on tax avoidance that the UK government has with corporations.

This strikes me as a bit odd. If the government wants to have open and frank discussions then surely part of that is making the discussions 'open' to scrutiny.

By keeping these deals a secret, there can be no such thing as open and frank discussions, and for the public who are kept out of the deals the government is doing with businesses, it seems somewhat dishonest.

The government has been criticised by former chair of the UK's public accounts committee who said there was evidence the UK has joined a list of 'offenders' who are 'evolving new tax reliefs and practices which create quasi-tax-haven conditions here in the UK'.

So, that's the crux of it; the government doesn't actually want to stop offering sweetheart deals to companies because it is seen as a glorious paradise of tax avoidance and it really doesn't want us to know about that.