Pat McGrath of Australia’s national broadcaster ABC News reports that “About 100 Tax Office staff have begun a four year investigation into the tax affairs of big companies global companies operating in Australia.” (sic)

In an interview with Pat McGrath, Mark Konza (ATO Deputy Commissioner) said: “At the moment – and I should say this process is ongoing, so other cases will be identified over time – these 86 cases where we felt that the structuring events that had taken place seem to have a very bad effect on a company’s Australian tax position…”. Deputy Commissioner Konza continued, “We will issue assessments on companies that we think weren’t applying the law correctly. If they’re involved in profit shifting, they’ll get an assessment; they’ll get penalties as well.” Read More

Algirdas Semeta, EU’s Commissioner for Tax wants Australian PM to use G20 Presidency to lean on Asia-Pacific financial centres to reduce bank secrecy & share tax information.

In an exclusive in today’s Australian Financial Review, journalist Geoff Winestock reports that Commissioner Semeta (who is currently in Australia) wants Prime Minister Abbott to convince Singapore, HK, Taiwan & Macau to reduce their bank secrecy provisions and to share tax information with other authorities. Commissioner Semeta is due to meet today with Australia’s Treasurer Joe Hockey and the two are likely to discuss protection of the tax base against multinationals that shift profits to offshore financial centres.

Commissioner Semeta said “Australia could find a way to get all these countries on board”. Read More