Most people do not believe big companies pay their fair share of tax, according research from energy giant SSE and ICAS, the Scottish accountancy institute.
The YouGov study of 2000 adults found only a third of people think most big businesses in the UK pay their fair share of tax, compared to four out of every five people believing small businesses do.
Just 6per cent would trust a company to provide accurate information on whether they are paying the right amount of tax, and only 10per cent think it is acceptable for companies to move their base of operations abroad to avoid paying corporation tax in the UK.
Over half (57 per cent) said the way a company pays its taxes affects their trust in that company.
More than two thirds (69per cent) believed the government should consider a company's ethics and how it pays its taxes, as well as value for money and quality of service, when awarding public contracts.
Alistair Phillips-Davies , chief executive of SSE , said: "Big business has a major job on its hands to convince the public that it is paying taxes fairly."
He went on: "Tax is not a penalty for profit; it is the proper way to contribute to the society that enables your business to be successful. We have explicitly ruled out the use of artificial tax avoidance schemes and tax havens; we have disclosed much greater tax detail on our accounts and last year we were the first FTSE 100 company to be awarded the Fair Tax Mark."
Jim Pettigrew CA, President of ICAS said: "The survey demonstrates that big business has got a long way to go to convince the public that companies have earned their trust on taxation." He said there was a "pressing need for better tax legislation to be enacted which minimises complexity and reduces the grey areas where so much of the ambiguity lies".
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