Business

Voters back corporate tax crackdown

Georgia Wilkins
392 words
15 September 2014
The Sydney Morning Herald
SMHH
First
21
English
© 2014 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited.
Profit shifting - Call for stricter rules

Australians are increasingly concerned about corporate tax avoidance and support greater measures to
tackle profit shifting, a survey shows.

Voters are also more likely to view companies such as Apple negatively because of their use of offshore tax
havens, and want companies to be required to report their profits and taxes in each country in which their
operate.

The research, commissioned by advocacy group Tax Justice Network, comes as the government prepares to
chair the G20 finance ministers' and central bank governors' meeting in Cairns next week.

The meeting is one of the last before the G20 leaders' summit in Brisbane in November.

The issue of profit shifting - where global companies move large sums of money offshore to lower their tax - is
high on the agenda as governments try to plug holes in tax revenue.

The survey of 1000 people found that there is widespread support to make corporate tax in Australia more
transparent.

Nine out of 10 voters believed it was unacceptable for foreign multinationals to operate in a country and not
pay any taxes, even if they were abiding by the law.

They also supported tighter regulations to close the tax loopholes used by corporations.

Companies such as Apple, Google, IKEA, and Glencore have been accused of deliberately reducing their tax
bills in Australia by relocating profits overseas.

Almost two-thirds of people surveyed said they felt negative about companies such as Apple for using
loopholes to avoid tax.

There was also increasing support for rules to be tightened at the G20 summit.

Treasurer Joe Hockey warned last week that the government would not stand "idly by" while big companies
shirk their responsibility to pay tax.

He demanded the Commissioner of Taxation "double his efforts" to crack down on companies considered a
risk to the tax system.

But Labor says Mr Hockey has procrastinated in measures to reduce corporate tax avoidance, including
failing to commit to an OECD information-sharing deal that would help catch tax cheats.

It has called on the government to stand by measures introduced under Labor that will force the top 200
companies to disclose how much tax they pay from July next year.

The Tax Justice Network includes the Uniting Church, Oxfam, Action Aid and United Voice.

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