# Federal Budget 2016 - "Google Tax" to also be an "Uber Tax"?



## matPORTS (Feb 1, 2016)

_If you think multinationals don't pay enough tax...

Big companies that avoid paying tax in Australia by shifting profits offshore are facing even tougher rules, to be backed up by an extra 1000 specialist staff at the Australian Taxation Office.

The new measures include a diverted profits tax, which imposes a penalty tax rate of 40 per cent on income multinationals attempt to shift offshore - higher than the company tax rate.

There will also be more protections for tax whistleblowers and increased penalties for multinationals that don't meet their obligations.

The government is optimistically pencilling in an additional $3.9 billion in revenue over the next four years from these measures_.

Discuss...


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## Instyle (Oct 18, 2014)

The Australian - Budget 2016 rush to avoid tax crackdown

A fresh crackdown on tax avoidance is expected to spark a wave of restructuring by multinational and local companies to avoid penalties.

Scott Morrison announced in the budget a raft of new measures and a special Australian Taxation Office taskforce to chase down $3.9 billion of tax that companies and wealthy people are dodging.

The measures include a new diverted profits tax that will hit companies for 40 per cent of any profits they attempt to route through low-tax jurisdictions, which is expected to raise $200 million.

It is the second leg of a so-called “Google tax’’ modelled on Britain and follows the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law introduced last year to catch companies that attempt to avoid having a taxable presence in Australia.

Tax experts said companies were likely to follow Google, which announced last week that it would restructure its local operations to comply with MAAL and route its estimated $2.5bn locally sourced revenue through its Australian companies rather than a marketing hub in Singapore.

The hubs have been condemned by a Senate inquiry into multinational tax avoidance as a means for tech giants and others to avoid tax in Australia.

Google Australia is understood to be confident it will now be consistent with the new MAAL laws and the budget announcement is unlikely to affect its bottom line.

The ATO has contacted 170 companies about MAAL and PwC corporate tax partner Paul Abbey said he expected a number of companies to restructure and comply with the new rules.

New measures including “hybrid mismatches’’ and the diverted profits tax are not expected to become law before 2018, giving companies time to restructure operations and bring more revenue and profits back onshore.

“Some of them will be in discussions with the ATO to change their structure,’’ Mr Abbey said.

Tax experts said the estimates of $3.9bn revenue from the crackdown were “reasonable’’ as losses from loopholes were a low single-digit share of the forecast $69bn in annual corporate tax collections.

KPMG partner Grant Wardell-Johnson said the expected $3.9bn returns was 5.4 times the $679m in extra funding for the ATO to chase tax avoidance, which was in line with previous crackdowns.

He said the diverted profits tax — which will hit companies for 40 per cent of any profits attempted to be moved offshore — was a “Damocles sword’’ hanging over companies.

“This is about changing the balance of the discussion,’’ Mr Wardell-Johnson said.

“You have to pay the Diverted Profits Tax and then talk to the them (the ATO) about it. It is a powerful tool.’’

Labor assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh said the DPT fell well short of Labor’s proposals, which it expected to raise $1.9bn from measures including lower debt allowances for local subsidiaries.

Labor wants to cut the debt foreign subsidiaries could hold from 60 per cent to no more than that of their global parent, reducing the potential for companies to siphon profits out of the country through tax-free interest payments.

“We know we will have to fight this government every step of the way to make multinationals pay their fair share,’’ Dr Leigh said.

The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, a free-market advocacy group, said the tax would prove a failure. “With the announced tax estimated to raise $100m annually, in the context of a $420bn budget, this measure is purely symbolic — and the symbolism is that Australia is closed for business and does not value innovation or intellectual property rights,” it said.

The Labor policy is in line with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s plans, which also include a cashflow measure. Mr Wardell-Johnson said there was some relief among companies that the government had not changed the so-called “thin-capitalisation’’ rules, but he expected the cash-flow test to be considered at a later date.


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## Icecool (Feb 8, 2016)

We'll see what happen we might see a lot large company to closing down and start moving business oversea . More reason for companies to do business oversea . More jobless Australia Will be a county for the retiree , unemploy , Centrelink recipient , Tourist . This is one thing Australia is good at collecting taxes and spending it . Australia should be encouraging job growth and foreign companies to do business not damaging


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## Instyle (Oct 18, 2014)

Icecool said:


> We'll see what happen we might see a lot large company to closing down and start moving business oversea . More reason for companies to do business oversea . More jobless Australia Will be a county for the retiree , unemploy , Centrelink recipient , Tourist . This is one thing Australia is good at collecting taxes and spending it . Australia should be encouraging job growth and foreign companies to do business not damaging


Within reason, it's a delicate balance we'll see if they get it right. What large foreign company would you foresee pull out of Australia?


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## Ubereater (Dec 25, 2015)

So called "The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance" is a proprietary limited company with 2 shareholders : Tim Andrews and his mother.. 
What an "Alliance", hey !

Tim Andrews is paid up lobbyist for the multinationals.


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## Icecool (Feb 8, 2016)

Instyle said:


> Within reason, it's a delicate balance we'll see if they get it right. What large foreign company would you foresee pull out of Australia?


I like the term Australia is the second rate Robin Hood .stilling from the rich legally and give it to the poor . Lossing 30% of their income plus 10% Gst will an significant impact of their profit . I sure they will get expert analysis to determine weather it is still profitable to continue their business in Australia . What I foresee is that large foreign company like the bank or service industry that you don't need to be in Australia will shift their operation overseas and just have a little support company running in Australia like uber . Uber dosen't running it business operation in Australia this is why they avoid Australia tax .
At 30 per cent, Australia's corporation tax is currently higher than all but six of the 34 OECD countries, and six percentage points above the OECD average.
For businesses who don't like paying taxes, the countries to avoid before Australia are Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico and Spain.
Finally, for companies who don't want to pay any tax at all, they can sally off to Vanuatu, Bermuda, Jersey or the Bahamas &#8230; as many do.
http://m.thenewdaily.com.au/money/2015/04/12/australias-income-tax-really-high/


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## NickyBoy (May 4, 2016)

why should the residents of the country pay extra taxes to cover these companies that 'dodge' taxation... I hate GST for one, & perhaps if the likes of IKEA, Google, Uber, etc etc paid some tax we wouldn't have been lumbered with it.. I actually pay more tax than some major companies.. that's wrong...
Its so annoying to pay GST, & income tax then find out your paying more than these guys through legitimate tax evading strategies...


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## Icecool (Feb 8, 2016)

Yes I agree but the reality is that you will found that the wealthy people of the world don't pay taxes unlike ordinary citizen like us ,who pay too much taxes . The system is built to suit these top 1% of the wealthy people . Did you know that 1% of the world population own 50% of the wealth. So they own most of the large company like google Apple ect . Even these company do pay taxes it will still come back to them in another ways . Our government is powerless to stop this . Did you know that our county got a foreign debt which is growing bigger each day . We pay interest on it . In the US one third of the tax payer money gose to paying just interest for these debt . In Australia it works the same way . Who do you think are the creditor of these debt . Yes the banks and who own the bank the wealthy people . So you might say then why don't the government do something about it to pay off these debt . Well they can't the government or their party are support by these wealthy cooperation with funding. 
Coming back to the issue of major company . The people of Australia need these major company more than they need us . Have a look some of the recent case of Toyota , Holden , ford . Closing their manufacturing of car in Australia . They can Always move their business Operation somewhere else . Toyota was exporting car from Australia to other country which wad good for our economy but Toyota find Australia is not profitable place to do business . so they closed it down . The same goes to Holden and ford who no longer can survive in australia due to high labour cost and poor quality cars .


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## Icecool (Feb 8, 2016)

Please watch this if anybody is interest of knowing why we are loosing jobs and why we relied on oversea Imports .
It is all plan call agender 21 . before you call this a conspiracy watch and think for yourself .


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