George Osborne will take the first steps to redeem his pledge to tackle corporate tax abuse by big technology multinationals in the autumn statement, which will see a final admission that the government failed to fulfil its central economic mission of eliminating the underlying deficit by 2014-15.
The chancellor is expected to have to concede that net borrowing for the year will reach about £90bn – greater than the £86.5bn predicted at the time of the last budget – but in a statement shaped by the continued constraints on the public finances, Osborne will try to highlight plans to take urgent action to clamp down on tax loopholes exploited by technology firms such as Amazon and Google, even though the most effective action requires international agreement.
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