IT was the former Labour Chancellor Denis Healey who remarked “the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is but the thickness of a prison wall”.

While avoidance is technically legal Margaret Hodge MP and the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee have exposed that the legal practices of many multinational companies are quite simply outrageous (Echo, May 17).

Alas, such practices are now common worldwide.

In the US, the total percentage of federal income tax collected from corporations has been cut in half in the past 50 years. At the same time the percentage of tax that you and I pay has gone up to cover this loss in revenue to governments.

It really is time we stood up and did something about this. A letter to your MP is a good place to start. What’s in their postbag does make a difference to what they say and do on our behalf.

If multinational companies paid a fair amount of tax, then the cuts to public services we are currently experiencing wouldn’t have to be anywhere near as bad as they now are.

Paul Brannen, Newcastle.