Tax avoidance solution 18 months off: Robb

The days of multi-national companies avoiding tax could be numbered.

The issue is on the G20 Summit’s Brisbane agenda next week and Trade Minister Andrew Robb believes all countries will work together to come up with a solution within the next 12 to 18 months.

“A consequence of self interest will mean they will seek to fix it,” he told the Financial Review Sunday program.

It’s not illegal for multi-nationals to pay tax in other jurisdictions but Mr Robb said taxation law must catch up to the changing world economy.

“This issue needs to be addressed,” he said.

“The world has moved on and taxation law hasn’t gone with it.”

Labor leader Bill Shorten said the government had scrapped Labor-created safeguards against tax loopholes since coming into power.

“It is wrong in Australia that a high street newsagency can pay more tax than Google or Glencore,” he told ABC TV.

His colleague Andrew Leigh says $1.1 billion has been handed back to multi-national businesses through debt shifting and off-shore banking.

“At a time when you’re making cuts to the most vulnerable … you can’t be giving $1.1 billion back to multi-nationals,” he told Sky News.