About 600 of the biggest firms operating in Australia — including Qantas Airways Ltd and Glencore PLC — paid no income tax in the financial year from 2013 to last year, data showed yesterday as the government vowed to keep targeting loopholes.
There has been a global push, including in Australia, for large local and multinational companies to stop using sophisticated structures to avoid or lower their tax payments, which has seen governments lose billions in revenue.
The tax details of about 1,500 large corporations were released by the Australian Taxation Office as a “step forward in improving corporate tax transparency,” Australian Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan said in a statement.
While Jordan said companies that did not incur a tax bill were not necessarily avoiding payments, he warned multinational firms — some of which fronted a parliamentary inquiry this year on tax minimization — that their “aggressive arrangements” would be scrutinized.
“Some of these foreign-owned companies are overly aggressive in the way they structure their operations,” he said. “We will continue to challenge the more aggressive arrangements to show that we are resolute about ensuring companies are not unreasonably playing on the edge. If they do, they can expect to be challenged.”
In March, Britain introduced a so-called “Google tax” on firms that divert profits overseas, while Australia recently passed a law to lift transparency requirements that would also see disclosures required for private companies with turnovers of A$200 million (US$143.98 million).
Apple Inc raked in A$6.2 billion in total income in Australia for the financial year from the 2013 to last year, but only had a taxable income of A$247.4 million and a tax bill of A$74.1 million, the data showed.
Swiss commodity giant Glencore booked combined revenue of A$17.4 billion for the same period for three reporting entities, but paid no tax for any of them, the data showed.
In addition, Australian carrier Qantas and oil and gas company ExxonMobil Australia were among other household names that made billions in total income, but paid no tax in the financial year from 2013 to last year, data showed.
Australia had worked with the G20 and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to close the tax loopholes of multinationals, and had strengthened the powers of the taxation office, Australian Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer said.
“It is critically important that multinational... companies are paying their fair share of tax and that’s why the government has been very quick to lead this debate through the G20,” she told reporters yesterday.
Opposition Labor Party Senator Sam Dastyari — who chaired the tax inquiry — said the data supported the need for “tougher laws to crack down on this type of behavior.”
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
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