MNCs' days of tax avoidance are all but over

THAT was fun while it lasted! The great multinational experiment - led by American innovators such as Apple, Amazon, Starbucks and Google - in shifting corporate income to a magical stateless place where it was never taxed seems to be coming to an end.

As the Financial Times has just reported, several leading multinational corporations (MNCs) have come a long way towards dismantling structures they have used to minimise their tax bills, according to an official leading an international crackdown on avoidance.

The moves were a sign that the "very aggressive tax planning of the past is over", said Pascal Saint-Amans, the top tax official at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).