Global firms accused of diverting profits offshore to lower their tax bill will come under fresh scrutiny in Australia after new laws were introduced yesterday to ensure they pay their “fair share of tax.”
The bill was put before parliament amid an international push to stop firms using complex corporate structures to avoid tax, and targets more than 1,000 multinationals generating turnovers of more than A$1 billion (US$700 million), Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said.
The complex methods allegedly used by firms include booking revenue in lower-taxing countries to reduce tax on profits in higher-taxing jurisdictions, with governments collectively losing billions of dollars in the process.
Photo: Bloomberg
“It is patently unfair for a large multinational with sophisticated structures not to pay its fair share of tax,” Hockey told reporters in Canberra.
“Under this new law, when we catch companies cheating, they will have to pay back double what they owe, plus interest,” the treasurer added in a statement.
Australian Tax Office Commissioner Chris Jordan said the bill also strengthened his agency’s abilities to go after firms that continue to shift profits to lower-taxing nations such as Singapore, adding that there were currently “billions of dollars” not being booked locally.
Hockey said the new laws would take a different approach from Britain, which in March introduced a so-called “Google tax” on companies that divert profits overseas, although treasury officials have been working closely with London on the issue.
The legislation will require public companies with income of more than A$100 million a year to disclose their tax affairs from Dec.1.
Rules will also be tightened so heavily geared firms cannot shift profits overseas through the guise of paying interest, while funding to the Australian Tax Office will be boosted to increase its focus on tax avoidance.
Hockey said at this stage he could not put a number on how much more corporate tax could be raised through the amendments.
An Australian parliamentary inquiry into corporate tax avoidance last month recommended naming and shaming firms that avoid paying tax, after hearings with senior executives from giants such as Apple Inc, Google Inc, Pfizer Inc and Johnson & Johnson.
The firms said they had operated within local and international tax laws.
International efforts to tighten laws have been led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Under the G20, which encompasses the world’s top 20 economies, Hockey said that “very integrated and ... wide-ranging” proposals on how to allocate profits from multinational firms between countries were also being discussed.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last