A leading membership body for accountants has come under heavy fire for giving its unqualified backing to a new standard for ethical behaviour in tax.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) this week hailed the Fair Tax Mark (FTM) as “an initiative we are right behind”, calling it “a step in the right direction for assessing the quality and transparency of a business’ publicly available information of their tax activities”.

But the ICAEW Tax Faculty’s online support for the mark – relaunched last week after a major revamp – was quickly and strongly attacked by tax experts.

“I do not believe the ICAEW should support this initiative without total transparency and accountability”, commented Baker Tilly partner David Heaton, who questioned the FTM’s scoring system and cast doubts on the “ability of the self-nominated scorekeepers to make any reliable, informed decision based on their completed application forms that would inspire confidence in …