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View Full Version : Is Australia the world's best tax haven ?



topari
8th Feb 2016, 05:09 PM
This list was posted in the Age sometime ago. These companies have over $1billion in revenue and pay no income tax in Australia. Labor's Sam Dastyari has been pushing this in the senate against must pressure from vested interests. Any of these companies familiar?

Why is the 15% GST proposal so emotionally discussed, but these $1Billion plus earners get almost no mention?

By way of one example, CSL is leaving Australia for Switzerland which has a lower Company Tax.... lower than zero ?

CSL LIMITED
Total income: $2,105,980,000

______________

Who is not paying tax?

Here is the source.
Which of Australia's biggest companies are not paying tax


(http://metalworkforums.com/redirect-to/?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smh.com.au%2Fbusiness%2Fthe-economy%2Fwhich-of-australias-biggest-companies-are-not-paying-tax-20151216-glpl3a.html)

YBAF
8th Feb 2016, 05:30 PM
Why should any company pay 'income' tax ?

Like most Australians I own shares in some of these companys either directly or indirectly and I pay tax on the dividends. Looking at the situation in the most basic way, the more you tax the Co's the less the dividend payout.

Most tax money is p.issed against the wall by the politicians anyway. They dont deserve any more then they get to waste... in fact a dramatic reduction is in order.

topari
8th Feb 2016, 05:37 PM
Same argument can be applied to personal income tax. It took a senate inquiry to make this data publicly available and that against much resistance. Currently Government expenses exceed revenue, so lets increase the GST.

jhovel
8th Feb 2016, 05:58 PM
I agree with the GST incrrease wholehearedly.
Think about it: paying tax for having money or earning money or saving money or investing money is ultimately an incentive for people or companies to make an effort to do these. However taxing SPENDING money is the fairest way. Rich people spend lots - and therefore pay lots of tax. Poor people spend less - and pay less tax. What could be fairer? If rich people or companies don't want to spend it but save it or invest it or whatever without having to pay tax, then there is a great incentive to grow companies, job numbers, infrastructure etc....
What really s#1ts me is rich people not paying tax on money they SPEND, because they have weasel ways of making it 'someone else' spending the money (like their companies or whatever) tax free.....
The VAT and MWSt in Europe is now around 19% I think and guess what, they can afford to look after their education (free), health (free), social services (free), infrastructure....
Incidentally, some of the Baltic states (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland) have the highest personal tax system in the world - and the statistics show they are the people happiest to live where they live, the most satisfied with their governments. Seems the people most frightened of tax are the most annoyed with their governments. Logical?

GuzziJohn
8th Feb 2016, 06:15 PM
Why should any company pay 'income' tax ?

Like most Australians I own shares in some of these companys either directly or indirectly and I pay tax on the dividends. Looking at the situation in the most basic way, the more you tax the Co's the less the dividend payout.

Most tax money is p.issed against the wall by the politicians anyway. They dont deserve any more then they get to waste... in fact a dramatic reduction is in order.


Your signature line urges "reasoned argument" to combat Global Warming Hysteria. Is this your idea of reasoning regarding tax reform?

Big Shed
8th Feb 2016, 07:04 PM
Topari, please post a link to your source for the company data or else it will be deleted, we have no way of verifying anything on that list.

Not quite sure why this is posted on a Metalwork Forum?

topari
8th Feb 2016, 07:14 PM
Topari, please post a link to your source for the company data or else it will be deleted, we have no way of verifying anything on that list.

Not quite sure why this is posted on a Metalwork Forum?

Data deleted. You can delete the thread. The data is real an I would expect people to be outraged.

topari
8th Feb 2016, 07:20 PM
Here is the source.
Which of Australia's biggest companies are not paying tax (http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/which-of-australias-biggest-companies-are-not-paying-tax-20151216-glpl3a.html)

.RC.
8th Feb 2016, 07:54 PM
Do people forget about things called expenses?

What is the point of a list showing how much revenue a company makes. It has no relationship to how much profit they make.

Profit is taxable, revenue is not.

Big Shed
8th Feb 2016, 07:55 PM
Data deleted. You can delete the thread. The data is real an I would expect people to be outraged.


I didn't question whether the data was real or not, but in cases like this it is always better to post a link rather than a humongous list (very hard to scroll through and hard on forum resources and could have come from anywhere).

People can now see where this list came from and make up their own mind based on the source of publication.

Let me just say that this is a world wide problem and most countries are trying to grapple with it.

Big Shed
8th Feb 2016, 07:58 PM
Do people forget about things called expenses?

What is the point of a list showing how much revenue a company makes. It has no relationship to how much profit they make.

Profit is taxable, revenue is not.

Thank you RC, forgot to put that in my reply.

Makes for a nice "sound bite" though and gets in the gullible punters.

Master Splinter
8th Feb 2016, 09:37 PM
Profit may be taxable, but when you source finance (or buy car engines, or materials, or lease IP, or other forms of transfer pricing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_pricing)) from your parent company in the Cayman Islands at five times the rate you could have sourced it locally, you've just reduced your "have to pay tax on" Australian profit and magically created a profit in a lower (or no) tax environment.

For example:
How Ireland got Appleā€™s $9bn profit | afr.com (http://www.afr.com/news/politics/national/how-ireland-got-apples-9bn-profit-20140305-j7cxm)

I'd love to pay less than a cent in the dollar income tax too!!!!

Big Shed
8th Feb 2016, 09:46 PM
Totally agree MS, but as long as these practices are legal these companies will continue using them.

The current govt has gone some small way to try and curtail these practices, but there is a long way to go.

Countries all over the world are grappling with this problem, we are not alone.

We need more than some pollie grandstanding and breast beating, particularly one from a party that has done nothing about it in their last 2 terms in office.

Mike4
10th Feb 2016, 06:39 PM
Unfortunately most small businesses dont seem to be able to get out of paying tax.
In my case the business pays on the profit ?? and my wife and I pay as well.

The harder you work the more tax is paid for the hot air generators to waste on some hair brained scheme .

If there was a BS tax the pollies would be paying the highest.

Michael