To make up for this dead-weight loss, government spending must be worth much more than its apparent budget cost to be good for the country.

WSJ: Opinion: Corporate Tax Cuts Needed

Opposition spokesman Lord Eatwell said tax avoidance by businesses "undermines any perception of fairness in the tax system and imposes a dead-weight loss on the economy, by spawning a socially-useless tax avoidance industry".

BBC: Tax avoidance debate