EU states back plan to expose big companies' tax avoidance

Majority of member states back proposal to bring in country-by-country tax reporting

The EU has moved to force multinational companies to publish a breakdown of the tax they pay in each of the bloc's member states and in tax havens such as Seychelles, piling pressure on the UK government to follow suit.

Country-by-country reporting is designed to shine a light on how some of the world's biggest companies - such as Apple, Facebook and Google - avoid paying an estimated $500bn (358bn) a year in taxes by shifting their profits from higher-tax countries such as the UK, France and Germany to zero-tax or low-tax jurisdictions including Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta.