Mark Everson, the head of the US Internal Revenue Service, said an international taskforce set up last year to monitor aggressive corporate tax avoidance is already providing participating tax authorities with valuable leads to pursue.

The taskforce, which consists of tax officials from the US, UK, Canada and Australia, is scrutinising tax arbitrage by multinationals. The four tax authorities hope the taskforce will enhance their chances of curbing tax avoidance schemes they regard as abusive.