Companies appearing before a senate inquiry into tax avoidance are on notice that any false evidence they give will be corrected by the Tax Office. Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan urged the committee to ask individual companies to disclose their own tax positions. He would correct the record if they provided… – Continue reading
The Western world needs to tackle multi-national tax avoidance a “bit like” it has tackled the Islamic State terrorist group, maverick Liberal senator Bill Heffernan says. Senator Heffernan has for years argued tax avoidance is a threat to sovereignty and thinks it will take a coalition of Western countries to… – Continue reading
The Federal Government has floated the idea of lowering the corporate tax rate – arguing the current rate of 30% is not internationally competitive. The rationale is that globalisation makes capital perfectly mobile and the marginal non-resident investor in Australian companies will go where corporate tax rates are lowest. At… – Continue reading
Taxation experts have warned against unilateral action on corporate tax avoidance, telling a Senate Economics Committee Australia should be proactive and show leadership in the OECD and G20 tax processes already underway. The inquiry, initiated by Greens leader Christine Milne, is exploring tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation by corporations registered… – Continue reading
Singapore does not condone any abuse of its tax system, a Ministry of Finance (MOF) spokesman said on Tuesday, in response to a Straits Times query following media reports that the Australian government is pursuing global miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto for channelling billions of dollars in iron ore… – Continue reading
Tax breaks for research and development should be targeted to smaller technology start-ups, rather than big companies that will most likely make the investments regardless of incentives, Google Australia will tell the senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance. Google Australia’s managing director, Maile Carnegie, will be appearing before the inquiry… – Continue reading
Labor Senator Sam Dastyari has accused the Tax Commissioner of protecting some of the nation’s worst tax dodgers after the commissioner denied access to documents which could embarrass some of the world’s biggest mining companies. On the eve of the corporate tax avoidance inquiry by a parliamentary committee led by… – Continue reading
The financial arrangements of some of Australia’s biggest companies will be in the spotlight this week with a Senate inquiry taking evidence on corporate tax avoidance. The inquiry was initiated by the Greens leader Christine Milne and supported by the Federal Opposition. “We have to actually start really pushing on… – Continue reading
Apple, Google and Microsoft have faced an Australian Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance on Wednesday. The tech giants have given evidence to a committee regarding the low amounts of tax paid locally in comparison to their profits. From the coy responses of the big three, one may come to… – Continue reading
New freedoms mean you can move your pension abroad. We show you where you’ll pay the least tax It is the ultimate dream for many people – to work hard, build up a nest egg and retire abroad to a climate with year-round sunshine. Now there is an added financial… – Continue reading
The Abbott government is facing overwhelming angst about the issue of corporate tax avoidance and the threat to weekend penalty rates in a string of seats it must retain to win back government. Polling obtained by Fairfax Media found more than nine out of 10 people in the NSW bellwether… – Continue reading
A SENATE inquiry will examine the tax arrangements of the biggest technology companies in the world today. The tactics used by companies to minimise their Australian tax bills will be under the spotlight, as well as what more could be done to ensure multinationals pay their way. After Treasurer Joe… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance takes centre stage this week with a parliamentary inquiry due to hold its first public hearings. The Senate inquiry into Tax Avoidance and Profit Shifting will start taking evidence from major technology and mining companies. The inquiry was prompted by a report which found tax minimisation strategies employed… – Continue reading
The number of Australian companies using renminbi to settle cross-border business has increased substantially over the past year, according to a new business survey. HSBC surveyed companies transacting with China and found that the proportion of Australian companies using RMB for cross-border business has risen from nine per cent in… – Continue reading
The number of Australian companies using renminbi to settle cross-border business has increased substantially over the past year, according to a new business survey. HSBC surveyed companies transacting with China and found that the proportion of Australian companies using RMB for cross-border business has risen from nine per cent in… – Continue reading
Urgent changes are needed to Australian tax laws, say experts, amid claims BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto avoided paying billions of dollars in tax during the mining boom. The Australian Tax Office has the mining giants in its sights over claims they have been saving more than $750 million a… – Continue reading
Allegations that News Corp engaged in an aggressive tax avoidance scheme have been strongly rejected by the company. News Corp Australia chief executive Julian Clarke said in a statement: “This claim is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of these transactions, US and Australian tax treaties and applicable… – Continue reading
Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in the US has siphoned off $4.5 billion of cash and shares from his Australian media businesses in the past two years, virtually tax free. According to calculations by University of NSW accounting academic, Jeffrey Knapp, over the past 10 years, Mr Murdoch’s companies here have… – Continue reading
As you may already be aware, eligible individuals can currently contribute up to $180,000 per annum to their super fund using after-tax monies (known as nonconcessional contributions). Eligible individuals under age 65 can also bring forward an additional two years’ worth of contributions as long as they don’t exceed a… – Continue reading
An energy company operating in Australia transferred more than $11 billion to the low-tax jurisdiction of Singapore in a single year, heightening concerns that Australia is being duped by tax-minimising multinationals. The extraordinary scale of funds being moved out of the country by individual companies is revealed in an internal… – Continue reading
Internal documents from the Australian Taxation Office indicate an energy company operating in Australia transferred more than $11 billion to low-taxing Singapore, according to Fairfax Media. The report says the documents, secured under freedom of information, underline concerns that multi-nationals operating in Australia are dodging their tax obligations. The document… – Continue reading
More and more Americans are opening offshore bank accounts. This article provides statistical details about why this is so, that offshore banking can be safe and legal and which banking jurisdictions are safest. Apr. 3, 2015 / PRZen / VALENCIA, Calif. — Offshore banking is growing in leaps and bounds… – Continue reading
The likely centrepiece of Treasurer Joe Hockey’s assault on multinational profit-shifting – a so-called “Google tax” – risks breaking Australia’s international tax treaties, the Parliamentary Budget Office has found. The independent adviser warned that the unilateral introduction of a “diverted profits tax” like ones being considered by Australia and Britain… – Continue reading
Inquiry sparked by leaked Luxembourg files naming the sovereign wealth fund among dozens of Australian companies using elaborate structures to cut tax bills The $100bn Future Fund has refused to give evidence to a Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance despite being named in leaked documents last year among scores… – Continue reading
We asked Vincenzo Villamena, a New York-based international tax adviser and certified public accountant with Online Taxman, and his British-expat client Ed Zitron of San Francisco, to share personal finance tips for expats, particularly those hailing from the U.K. Here are their top tips: 1. Mind your pensions & QROPS!… – Continue reading
Jurisdictional issues will limit success. It’s no secret that companies including Apple, Google and Amazon, seem to pay less than their fair share of tax in Australia. Despite booking huge revenues from sales to Australian customers they are able to reduce their profits in this country by shifting profits to… – Continue reading
ACCORDING to Greens leader Christine Milne, “Superannuation in Australia has become a tax haven for the wealthy.” Yet as far as most Australians can see, there is only one guaranteed, rolled-gold tax haven in the whole country. It’s called Parliament House, where a fortunate group of people are set to… – Continue reading
The federal government is set to target profit shifting by multinationals in the May budget using a so-called Google tax in a bid to raise revenue and wrest the political initiative back from Labor. While Australia is leading a push within the Group of 20 for a joint approach to… – Continue reading
Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan has pledged the Australian Taxation Office will beat a budget target of hitting $1.1 billion in revenue from multinationals by 2017, and says it expects to clock much of it by the end of the year through audits of technology companies. In an interview with Fairfax… – Continue reading
The measure of bank strength favoured by the financial system inquiry – capital levels – is too narrow, and assessing capital by reference to offshore banks will create “uncertainty and unintended consequences”, National Australia Bank has told Treasury. The more capital a bank holds, the less leveraged it is, which… – Continue reading
Australia’s biggest 900 companies claimed tax deductions and exemptions worth a total $25 billion last year – enough to wipe out two-thirds of the current federal budget deficit at a stroke. As Treasurer Joe Hockey prompted a national “conversation” about tax reform, including the prospect of a higher and broader… – Continue reading
A recently released discussion paper has found that Australia finds Bitcoin as becoming a threat to the country’s tax system. The paper said new technology and globalisation are among the main factors pushing multinational practices to engage in tax avoidance. According to the paper, news ways transacting such as Bitcoin… – Continue reading
CANBERRA – The tax system in Australia cannot adequately deal with modern cryptocurrencies, and the tax system needs to be updated to take such technologies into account. In a discussion paper issued on March 30th the Treasury of Australia claimed that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies undermine the national tax system… – Continue reading
THE Maritime Union Australia and a labour hire company have been ordered to pay a WA couple more than $723,000 compensation after refusing to give them offshore work because they were not union members. Bruce and Lynne Love were awarded the compensation last week over the 2009 ordeal. The MUA… – Continue reading
TAX reform has received wide support from retailers and taxpayers groups – but a union has questioned why Treasurer Joe Hockey has not raised corporate tax avoidance as a concern. The Treasury released a tax reform white paper on Monday calling for the existing system to be simplified. The white… – Continue reading
Australians working in Hong Kong should be aware of the various complexities that affect their residency, super and tax status. Going overseas to work is a grand adventure for many professionals. But the way income earned outside your home country is taxed is a complex area, and it’s worth seeking… – Continue reading
Labor has no plans to revive its controversial mining tax, assistant Treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh said on Friday. Labor has no plans to revive its controversial mining tax, assistant Treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh said on Friday. Mr Leigh told a Minerals Council of Australia tax conference in Melbourne that “I… – Continue reading
Small banks say they will be hit harder by the bank deposit levy the government is planning to introduce in the budget because they are more reliant on deposits for funding and have thinner margins than the bigger institutions. Their view has the sympathy of the Australian Greens which said… – Continue reading
Summary:A new discussion paper released by the Australian government suggests that the emergence of new financial transaction technology such as bitcoin is making it tough for the country’s authorities to clamp down on tax avoidance. The emergence of new technology is proving to be problematic for Australia’s tax system, according… – Continue reading
Government questions dividend imputation and company tax rate Australian investors appear to have dodged a bullet, with the government’s first paper on tax reform discussing the dividend imputation system but falling short of attacking it outright as an idea that has outlived its usefulness. David Murray’s inquiry into the Australian… – Continue reading
Goldman Sachs is expected to earn up to $15 million for trading Chevron’s $4.73 billion Caltex Australia stake. Sources said Goldman had done the deal at the lower end of the block trade fee spectrum, charging the global oil giant an estimated 25 basis points for underwriting and selling the… – Continue reading
More JSE-listed counters announce offshore opportunities. It is becoming increasingly difficult for JSE-listed property companies to find value and attractive deals in the local market, which has seen the offshore diversification spree continue. Industry players believe that the sector has turned over the last few years, with more property counters… – Continue reading
People and companies charged with tax fraud or tax evasion should be granted the presumption of innocence in court, according to a parliamentary inquiry that pushes the federal government to radically overhaul current rules. At the moment, a taxpayer accused of tax evasion is deemed guilty and must prove their… – Continue reading
Australian companies are taxed too highly, and politicians need to realise it’s harming the economy, according to Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh. Australia’s corporate tax rate had been stuck at 30 per cent for a decade while New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and Canada had cut their rates… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Australia’s medicine subsidies, Canadian films and culture, and capital controls in Chile would be carved out from investment protection rules being negotiated in a Pacific trade pact, according to a draft text released by Wikileaks on Wednesday. An investment chapter, dated Jan. 20, from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership… – Continue reading
Senate hearings to question alleged links between firm behind Queensland’s Abbot Point coal port, a Cayman Islands company and a $1bn rorts investigation The Greens will use Senate hearings to question the Foreign Investment Review Board (Firb) about alleged links between Australia’s biggest proposed coal venture, a Cayman Islands company… – Continue reading
Five years after paying $413.7 million to settle a huge tax avoidance claim, ANZ bank is under fire for a $1 billion deal that appears to “double dip” on trans-Tasman tax benefits. The criticism follows the Australian bank’s issue this month of A$970 million ($995 million) of hybrid securities to… – Continue reading
How to ensure landowning clients do not have shortfalls and exposure to penalties Landowners in Queensland should expect increased scrutiny of their affairs for land tax purposes. It is expected the Queensland Office of State Revenue (Queensland OSR) will increase its land tax audit activity in 2015 so landholders and… – Continue reading
Internationally, Australia has been seeking to take a lead on addressing transfer pricing issues as chair of G20, with a focus on a global and coordinated approach to base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). Domestically, the focus has been on reform of the transfer pricing regime in light of deficiencies… – Continue reading
A leading Swiss banker told his Lebanese counterparts that the days of banking secrecy are over, urging the lenders to prepare their clients for this inevitable outcome. “The banks which attracted tax evaders can no longer continue in this pattern because the era of banking secrecy is over and an… – Continue reading
