Since Shire, the pharmaceutical company, switched its tax jurisdiction to Dublin in May 2008 several fiscal refugees have followed suit. Many more are mulling over similar moves. The last thing a debt-saddled government needs is to start haemorrhaging tax revenue. So HM Revenue & Customs is to start combing through absconders’ e-mails, travel schedules and board minutes to ascertain who is merely hanging up a brass plate in low-tax jurisdictions rather than moving the heart of the business.

Good luck. The government is trying to cut public spending, but this work is labour-intensive. Companies will presumably redouble their efforts not to be caught out. They will need to prove their offshore meetings aren’t simply rubber-stamping decisions that were made in London. No director worth his salt will be caught holding a ticket on a Dublin flight that returns two hours after the start of the board meeting, even if that means spending two days holed up in a hotel room gorging on room service. It’s not just companies and the UK Treasury brawling over the tax take. Other governments, having also shelled out on stimulus spending, want their share of a rapidly decreasing global tax pie. Thus, for example, countries in the rest of Europe and in Asia are beefing up regimes on intra-company cross-border transactions to increase their cut. Finally, employees also have an interest in where they are based. Why hang around to pay a top-slice rate of 50 per cent personal tax when you could be paying just 15 per cent in Hong Kong?