Former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan has accused one of Australia’s biggest companies of evading taxes for more than a decade, and for lying to the former Labor government during the height of the mining tax debate. Swan used parliamentary privilege on Wednesday to claim BHP Billiton had been “gaming the… – Continue reading
Twenty of the nation’s largest companies have voluntarily signed up to a comprehensive new code to disclose more details of their tax affairs in their latest ¬annual accounts following a series of scandals involving local and offshore firms. In the May budget, the federal government announced it was committed to… – Continue reading
Coles has urged its German rival Aldi to sign up to a new tax transparency code that will lead to more big businesses, particularly multinationals, releasing detailed information about the tax they pay. Aldi has yet to sign up to the Voluntary Tax Transparency Code, which targets more than 1500… – Continue reading
Multinationals suspected of routing Australian profits via Singapore will be outed to tax authorities, with the low-tax nation this week signing up to the global plan to fight tax evasion. Companies including big miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto as well as technology giants Apple and Google, have admitted using… – Continue reading
Australia must not be blown off course from getting a company tax rate closer to 20 per cent. Corporate tax transparency figures released in December by the Australian Taxation Office should not slow momentum. For the first time, the ATO reported the tax affairs of companies with total incomes of… – Continue reading
few days before Christmas, in the full light of an Australian summer, the Australian tax commissioner published the tax details of 1,500 large corporate taxpayers which showed a staggering one-third of these companies paid no tax in 2014. This transparency measure was part of a wider package of ground-breaking legislation… – Continue reading
The Australian Government’s efforts to improve tax collections are more urgent amid falling revenue from weak commodity prices, the Wall Street Journal reports Malcolm Turnbull’s government took the rare step of making public the tax affairs of scores of multinationals, highlighting that many big names—including Apple Inc. and Volkswagen AG… – Continue reading
Hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue could be up for grabs as the Tax Office announces reviews of multinationals using offshore hubs in Singapore to minimise their tax. The ATO has issued a warning to multinationals to come forward immediately to discuss their overseas hub arrangements, if they have… – Continue reading
Some people think popular furniture store IKEA is being naughty, and not paying its proper share of tax in Australia. The franchise is a behemoth, both literally in terms of store size and figuratively in that it collected a US$5 billion profit for the 2014 financial year. A community action… – Continue reading
What does Uber mean for Canberra? Journalist Henry Belot explains how Uber will work in the ACT and what it means for passengers and drivers. Uber and Airbnb will be dragged before the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance this week to face questions about tax structures that allow them… – Continue reading
Profit-shifting has not paid off for petroleum multinational Chevron, slugged with a tax bill for $322 million thanks to a Supreme Court decision on Friday. Chevron has been under close scrutiny this year, particularly since a senate inquiry into tax-avoidance in April which also put mining giants BHP, Rio Tinto,… – Continue reading
The Turnbull government has welcomed the support of the Labor party for the new laws that will add more teeth to the government’s crackdown on multinational tax dodgers. The government also offered to consider the suggestions of the opposition in improving the scope of the legislation. Labor formally announced its… – Continue reading
BHP Billiton has defended the use of a Singapore marketing hub to minimise its tax payments, saying most of its Australian profits continue to be taxed in its home country. The resources giant, which came under fire earlier this year over allegations of tax avoidance, says its global adjusted effective… – Continue reading
Chevron’s tax filings face repeated challenges from the United States and other global tax authorities, according to a new union-backed report that calls on world governments to crack down on the energy giant’s alleged profit-shifting tactics. The world’s largest trade union body, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), has called… – Continue reading
‘I’m not going to buy into that’ Joe Hockey refuses to feed speculation that he could be replaced as Treasurer by Scott Morrison under the new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Malcolm Turnbull’s first full day as PM: Live coverage Joe Hockey signals he’s ready to serve on Malcolm Turnbull’s frontbench… – Continue reading
The Senate inquiry into multinational tax avoidance will table an interim report today detailing some of its findings after holding five public hearings and receiving more than 100 submissions from some of the world’s largest companies including Apple, Microsoft, BHP, Rio Tinto and Google. The final report is due to… – Continue reading
FEW tax hikes have been timed so badly – and retracted so fast – as that imposed on mineral royalties by Zambia’s President Edward Lungu in January. After threats of divestment from major mining houses and an outcry from the country’s Chamber of Mines, the massive hike in royalty taxes… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office has warned companies it will be focusing on money attributed to offshore marketing hubs and will use its stronger transfer pricing powers to go after them, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Australian companies sent more than AU$100 billion to related parties in the low-tax nation of… – Continue reading
France is trying to squeeze more out of web businesses like EBay Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Airbnb Inc. Soaring online sales and the use of the Internet giants by smaller businessses as a marketplace for goods and services is prompting the French Senate to look for ways to collect more… – Continue reading
Sydney, 10 June (Argus) — The Australian government has released legislation to tighten rules governing corporate taxation such as the use of offshore tax havens. The bill is not aimed at any particular sector of the economy, but several resource and commodity companies have come under scrutiny following a Senate… – Continue reading
Fortescue Metals Group established a company in Singapore that could buy and sell its iron ore more than a year before it started attacking its rivals for doing the same thing. The company, called Fortescue International Marketing, is incorporated and domiciled in Singapore. Still dormant, it is ready to be… – Continue reading
It’s shaping as a fight that could recover hundreds of millions in lost tax revenue. In one corner is the commissioner of taxation. In the other, Australia’s two biggest miners — BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. At stake is their use of Singapore-based marketing hubs, which until now have remained… – Continue reading
Rio Tinto’s head of tax – who was recently hauled before the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance about the lack of tax the miner pays – will now be also advising the Abbott government on how to improve the tax system and increase transparency in relation to the tax… – Continue reading
Glencore is under audit by the Australian Taxation Office for the low level of taxes it pays, claiming billions in “losses” overseas and resorting to low-tax or no-tax nations such as Bermuda, Singapore and the Cayman Islands. The Swiss-based mining giant revealed it was being investigated by the ATO in… – Continue reading
FORMER treasurer Peter Costello says changing or ending tax credits for shareholders who get dividends would see investors send their money offshore. The financial system inquiry (FSI) last year questioned the wisdom of dividend imputations, where shareholders get a tax credit for the profits a firm shares with investors via… – Continue reading
Singapore is not a tax haven, it’s a value-adding hub. That is the claim of the island nation’s Economic Development Board, the Singaporean government agency that’s been charged with attracting business and investment. It has disputed recent claims at the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance that it’s being used… – Continue reading
BHP Billiton is contesting A$522 million (S$544.8 million) in Australian tax bills on its Singapore marketing operations up to 2010, after having paid almost no tax in Singapore since 2006, the global miner told an Australian Senate panel, reports the Business Times. The figures were released on Monday by a… – Continue reading
Commissioner Chris Jordan delivers rebuke to multinational tech giants contesting evidence they gave to a Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance The tax commissioner, Chris Jordan, has delivered a public rebuke to multinational tech giants Apple, Google and Microsoft, vigorously contesting evidence they gave to a recent Senate inquiry hearing… – Continue reading
The nation’s most powerful and respected tax adviser has warned the Abbott government not to make a legislative “kneejerk” response to the current debate over multinationals shifting profits to avoid tax. Arnold Bloch Leibler senior partner Mark Leibler said today the current tough anti-avoidance provisions of the tax law should… – Continue reading
Johannesburg (miningweekly.com) – With the shareholder vote just over three weeks away, the planned spin-off of South32 from BHP Billiton has turned bearish and BHP Billiton has itself fallen victim to an unprecedented number of analyst sell recommendations owing to the plummeting iron-ore price, worsened by the reputational damage that… – Continue reading
SINGAPORE, April 12 (Reuters) – The Singapore trading hubs of the world’s largest commodity companies are coming under scrutiny from the governments of some resource-producing countries who say they suspect they are using units in the Southeast Asian financial centre to avoid tax. Some of the world’s largest oil, mining… – Continue reading
Australia’s biggest miners, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, have told the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance that they are under audit by the Australian Taxation Office for allegedly shifting profits through marketing hubs in Singapore. The Singaporean hubs are used by multinationals including the tech giants and miners to… – Continue reading
An Australian Senate parliamentary committee hearing on Wednesday was dominated by the fire and brimstone of Labor and Greens politicians directed against tax avoidance by major corporations. Labor Senator Sam Dastyari called on Australian Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan to “name some of Australia’s worst corporate offenders,” declaring that they “should… – Continue reading
* Australia pursuing multibillion-dollar claims on BHP, Rio -AFR * Singapore marketing hubs save the two A$750 mln/year -AFR * Rio, BHP say the Singapore hubs not set up to save tax * BHP says uses the hub as it is close to customers and markets (Adds tax office, Rio,… – Continue reading
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
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
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
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
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
Rio Tinto has warned that multinational companies could be discriminated against if moves to combat tax “base erosion and profit shifting” went too far. With Australia and the other 33 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ramping up efforts to prevent multinational companies avoiding tax, Rio… – Continue reading
The House of Representatives was consumed for much of the week on the vexing matter of whether Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs had been subject to an “offer” of an actual “job” by the government or had merely been party to “discussions” over a new “role”. As the business… – Continue reading
The group that represents most of the ASX 200 on tax issues, the Corporate Tax Association, has emerged as a surprise advocate of increasing transparency about the amount of taxes big companies pay. The Corporate Tax Association’s submission to the inquiry into corporate tax avoidance said it had concerns about… – Continue reading
New Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has dismissed concerns from business and tax experts that changing the international tax rules could result in Australia losing mining tax revenue to nations like China, describing it as a “furphy”. Mr Frydenberg has also raised Australia’s competitiveness internationally as a concern, saying corporate taxes… – Continue reading
New Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has dismissed concerns from business and tax experts that changing the international tax rules could result in Australia losing mining tax revenue to nations like China, describing it as a “furphy”. Mr Frydenberg has also raised Australia’s competitiveness internationally as a concern, saying corporate taxes… – Continue reading
