Andrew Leigh

MEDIA RELEASE

HOCKEY’S TAX CONTORTIONS CAN’T HIDE LACK OF PLAN

Joe Hockey is still flailing around looking for a plan to tackle multinational tax avoidance with only weeks to go to the Budget.

When Labor announced our $7.2 billion package to ensure multinationals pay their fair share by targeting debt loading and deductions, the Treasurer dismissed it within hours.

Yet today Mr Hockey seems to have had a change of heart, with reports the budget may include measures to stop companies loading debt into their Australian operations. 

This would be a clear acknowledgement from the Treasurer that Labor has had it right all along.  

Mr Hockey’s chopping and changing on multinational taxation follows weeks of announcements and counter-announcements about the Government’s plans for a so-called ‘Google tax’.

After initially announcing that he would follow the UK in creating this tax, the Treasurer then back-tracked to promising some unspecified tweaks to Australia’s existing tax laws. His current idea is a plan to make a plan.

Joe Hockey eyes Britain’s ‘Google tax’ to boost tax take

- Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 

Australia to learn from UK Google tax

- The Age, 19 April 

Hockey rules out Google tax to target offshore profits

- Advertiser, 20 April

This flip-flopping on multinational tax must stop.

Businesses confidence is suffering because of the Treasurer’s lack of leadership. The Australian community needs to know the Treasurer has more than hot air.

Instead of constantly floating half-baked ideas, Joe Hockey should just admit that he is out of his depth and hasn’t done the hard policy work to come up with a sound tax plan.

Labor’s $7.2 billion multinational tax package is ready to go and could be slotted into the Budget forecasts today.  

All it would take is for Mr Hockey to stop Googling for ideas and take multinational tax avoidance seriously.  

MONDAY, 27 APRIL 2015

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