Govt tackles company tax avoidance

tax/

29 January 2016
| By Malavika |
image
image image
expand image

The Federal Government has signed a multilateral agreement to share tax information on the activities of multinational companies, which would give the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) more power to ensure companies pay their share of tax.

Australia was one of 31 countries to sign the agreement in Paris on Wednesday, under which tax authorities in different jurisdictions would be able to exchange multinationals' country-by-country reports.

The reports would include the companies' international transactions, including the location of their income and taxes paid, as well as setting out their transfer pricing policies.

Assistant Treasurer, Kelly O'Dwyer, said access to pricing information was vital to preventing international profit shifting, and added the agreement would enable the ATO to exchange information on multinationals with foreign tax administrations.

"The Government inherited a tax system from Labor that had failed to keep pace with the changing time, the growing importance of intellectual property, digital technology and integrated global supply chains," O'Dwyer said.

"Critically, we have tightened our transfer pricing rules and introduced the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law, which Labor voted against."

The law would prevent companies from booking their revenue offshore to avoid Australian tax, which the ATO said would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

Country-by-country reporting was one of the outcomes of the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, O'Dwyer said.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

5 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

5 months ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

7 months 1 week ago

Commonwealth Bank has formally dropped to zero advisers following LGT Crestone’s acquisition of its advice arm – some six years on from the Hayne royal commission. ...

4 weeks 1 day ago

The FSCP has issued a written direction to an adviser who charged clients “extraordinary fees” for inappropriate and conflicted advice, as well as encouraged them to swit...

1 week 4 days ago

ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of an advice firm associated with Shield and First Guardian collapses, and permanently banned its responsible manager. ...

3 weeks ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
92.15 3 y p.a(%)
3