ATO leads global battle against multinational tax cheats

The ATO has so far also ¬recouped $342 million in unpaid tax from 1900 offshore ¬accounts held by Australians and $215 million from multinationals.
THE Australian Taxation Office will lead a new worldwide taskforce to crackdown on multinational tax cheats in a move it claims will yield billions of dollars in globally ¬unpaid tax.

Among the targets of the ¬intelligence network across 30 countries will be digital giants and internet companies.

The Daily Telegraph revealed late last year that Google was already believed to be under the spotlight in Australia, as well as in other countries, for paying next to no tax through elaborate offshore profit-shifting schemes.

Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan said that in Australia alone it expected to raise more than $1.1 billion in unpaid tax with 41 audits underway, including 12 into tech companies.

The ATO has so far also ¬recouped $342 million in unpaid tax from 1900 offshore ¬accounts held by Australians and $215 million from multinationals — welcome news for Treasurer Joe Hockey, who is battling to keep the budget deficit from deepening further.

The new tax taskforce will meet for the first time this week in Paris after the ATO secured agreement from 30 countries to share intelligence and data on the world’s largest companies.

The tax boss issued a warning to global corporate players that the ATO would lead the worldwide assault on “aggressive global tax avoidance”.

“There has been a seismic shift in co-operation,” Mr Jordan said.

“This is a global effort. The ATO is leading it … we developed the prototype.”

The network would begin operating under an existing body called the Joint International Tax Shelter Information Centre.

He said the level of unpaid tax globally had become a problem of unprecedented size.

“No one until now has asked what the scale of the problem was,” he said.

“It a serious threat. And we are responding.

“It just took someone to drive it. We are now bringing it together.”

Mr Jordan said that the intelligence-gathering by tax collectors was now taking on multinational companies at their own game.

“Multinational companies today have seamless operations across borders,” he said.

The new global network would now operate under the same rules as the tax avoiders, chasing companies across borders and around the globe.

Countries would now share information on the activities of multinational companies.

The network also had a web of informants who were now reporting to authorities on tax avoidance from within major organisations.

“Our message to people is that you can’t trust anyone any more,” Mr Jordan said.