But if the business is a corporation the tax rules are more complex.

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All the companies under fire over the amount of corporation tax paid said that they operated within the tax rules and regulations and have done nothing wrong.

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But it rules out devolving corporation tax unless it is also devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland, national insurance, capital gains tax, VAT and fuel duty.

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The overall picture is by now familiar to anyone interested in the news: Google, Amazon, Starbucks and many other multinationals are using different jurisdictions and complex accounting rules to avoid paying corporation tax.

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The firms have paid little UK corporation tax although they argue that they operate within tax rules.

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And of course it is trebly true of the cut in the top rate of income tax, the accelerated reductions in corporation tax and the reform of taxation for multinationals based here (the controlled foreign company rules).

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Which, of course, does not absolve the government from responsibility for writing tax rules in such a way as to prevent companies paying significantly less than the official corporation tax rate - which, of course, is not easy in a globalised world where businesses can move their domiciles and can shunt revenues more or less wherever they choose.

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