The Albanese government has passed a corporate tax transparency law that is said to be “one of the world’s strictest tax disclosure laws for multinational companies,” despite fierce lobbying against it by business lobbies domestically and abroad.
The law, which went through the national parliament in Canberra on November 29, follows years of tax avoidance by multinational companies and hundreds of local corporations (a third of Australian companies were estimated to have paid no tax in 2020-21).
The law requires public country-by-country reporting to allow the tax office to assess if genuine business operations align with locations where profits are booked and taxes paid, according to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
That means “every multinational operating in Australia now must publicly report on taxes paid, profits, the number of workers and other financial information in a broad list of jurisdictions,” it said, for the July 2024 financial year onwards.
“The new laws will basically out the multinational corporations that fail to meet their corporate tax obligations by shifting profits to once notorious tax haven jurisdictions,” it said, noting that global multinationals were estimated to have shifted $US1 trillion into tax havens in 2022.
Read the full report: ABC News.
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