Osborne Pledges U.K. Tax Clampdown as Starbucks to Pay More

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said he will devote more money to tackling tax avoidance as Starbucks Corp. bowed to pressure from Parliament and said it will consider paying more tax in Britain.

A 77 million-pound ($123 million) effort to improve Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ technology and recruit more staff may yield an extra 2 billion pounds in unpaid tax from companies such as Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee-shop operator, Osborne said. Pre-empting a House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report, the U.S. coffee chain said it is already in talks with the Treasury and “looking at our tax approach.”