Speaking at the  Public Accounts Committee (PAC) tax conference King told delegates – which included senior tax experts and heads of tax of the likes of Rio Tinto, Royal Dutch Shell, SSE, ASOS and Reed Elsevier – that consumers viewed tax with the same concern they held for looking after the environment and good employment practices.

‘If we wish to have permission to act in society we must be good citizens. By far, the most powerful vote is not the one we make every five years at the ballot box but the one shoppers make day in day out,’ King Said.

Conference delegates had earlier referenced companies such as Starbucks, Google and Amazon, publicly criticised over recent years over low tax payments in the UK.

Stephen Herring, tax director at the Institute of Directors, warned that the UK was seen as a pariah country.

‘I’m told by foreign investment directors that they like our tax system, and the tax rates, but they won’t come here because of the way they might be publicly criticised for using the reliefs available,’ Herring said.

King said that businesses sometimes strayed from the rules for a period. ‘Eventually the consumer catches up and they are forced to change,’ he said.

ICAEW chief executive Michael Izza said that the institution’s members – many of whom sat in senior positions as executives and non executives on company boards – had also indicated that the issue of how their companies are seen to pay tax has moved up the agenda.

‘The discussion on tax policy and strategy that gives effect to company behaviour now has prominence on the board agenda which was unheard of five to six years ago. Boards understand this now goes to the reputational heart of the organisation and even affects trade,’ Izza said.

CBI tax committee head, Will Morris concurred, saying, ‘Thinking about tax, we’re in a different phase now than we were five years ago. There’s a perception that there are bad things going on [with regards to business and tax] and we need to address that.

‘If there is no trust in business that affects us all at some stage, as it will be harder to do business and harder to create wealth.’