Australia to Close Corporate Tax Loopholes

Australia on Tuesday proposed new legislation to tighten tax loopholes that the conservative government says have allowed around 30 of the world’s largest multinational companies to avoid paying taxes.

Under the proposals, released as part of Australia’s 2015/16 federal budget, companies with more than A$1 billion in global revenues that are found to have intentionally avoided paying tax in Australia could be pursued for lost taxes.

With the new measures Australia will join Britain in leading a crackdown on companies such as global tech giants (GOOGL.O),

Apple (AAPL.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O), focusing particularly on their alleged shifting of profits from high-tax countries to low or no tax regimes.

“We have identified 30 large multinational companies that may have diverted profits away from Australia to avoid paying their fair share of tax in Australia,” Treasurer Joe Hockey told parliament.

“Under this new law, when we catch companies cheating, they will have to pay back double what they owe, plus interest.”

via Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza