HMRC launch ‘honesty box’ to let multinational corporations pay what they think is fair

HM Revenue & Customs have launched a new honesty box system for corporate clients, allowing them to ‘pay whatever they can, whenever they can, you know, if it’s not too much bother’.

The HMRC has come under criticism following their deal with Google to pay back taxes, along with the lack of prosecutions following their inquiry into HSBC’s tax evasion claims.

“Every HMRC office will now have an honesty bucket hanging outside, allowing corporate taxpayers to make a payment when they can scrape the money together, if it isn’t too difficult for them”, said a spokesman.

“We at the HM Revenue & Customs understand the struggle of small, hard working companies like Google, who only manage to make a paltry annual turnover of about £40 billion per year – that’s barely enough to keep them in bean bags, futuristic sleep pods and ball pits.”

The honesty box initiative comes after a lengthy, expensive investigation by the HMRC, which sought to find the most practical height for a bucket so that someone in the back of a Rolls Royce can easily toss coins into it.