Andrew Leigh

LABOR’S LAWS MAKING THE MONEY, NOT THE TURNBULL GOVERNMENT

The claims

“We have introduced a number of laws that crackdown on these companies that ensure they actually pay the right amount of tax. As you said, $4 billion in the last financial year alone, we have been able to claw back in terms of the assessments raised. Around $3 billion of that came from just seven multinational companies alone.”

-       Kelly O’Dwyer, August 23 2017

“Around about $2.9 billion coming from just seven companies alone and there’s more to come.”           

-       Kelly O’Dwyer, August 22 2017

The facts

Labor legislation is being applied in all seven cases cited by Minister O'Dwyer.

Specifically the cases involve Labor’s Taxation Laws Amendment (Countering Tax Avoidance and Multinational Profit Shifting) Bill 2013 and the Tax Laws Amendment (Cross-Border Transfer Pricing) Bill (No. 1) 2012.

The Coalition voted against these bills in both houses.

The Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law doesn’t apply to benefits accrued before January 1 2016, making it doubtful that any significant proportion of the $2.9 billion is directly attributable to the MAAL. Some of the audits span multiple years.

Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan stated that the Government’s Tax Laws Amendment (Combatting Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015 “indirectly caused discussions to be brought forward” and a “secondary effect of bringing taxpayers to the table”.

Mr Jordan also told a Senate Committee hearing yesterday that “the judgement in Chevron is one of the most important decisions in corporate tax in Australia ever”. Labor’s transfer pricing laws were also vital in this case.

Minister O'Dwyer loves to claim that Labor opposed the MAAL. As she knows, we supported it in the House. In the Senate, we said that we would support it only if the Turnbull Government backed tax transparency too. Only Labor can be trusted to get tough with multinationals.

WEDNESDAY, 23 AUGUST 2017