PERTH (miningweekly.com) – US oil and gas major Chevron has withdrawn its High Court appeal over a A$340-million bill from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The withdrawal means that the Full Federal Court decision of April is now final. The company in May turned to the High Court after a… – Continue reading
The Australian Tax Office is preparing to take several companies to court over abuse of thin capitalisation rules and will start a wave of audits of large multinationals with complex cross-border loans, as it continues to take a hardline approach in the wake of its win against Chevron. The ATO… – Continue reading
Chevron has decided to take its tax battles to the High Court of Australia after it was reported that the supermajor is in the crosshairs of the Australian Tax Office (ATO) for a disputed AU$1 billion outstanding tax bill. This comes after the Federal Court ruled in favor of the… – Continue reading
Revenue appraisers began crosschecking the withholding tax returns from some companies to determine propriety of the pay disbursed to their foreign and local employees and consultants. In recent times, the submitted accounts on the pay-as-you-earn tax of some multinational companies (MNCs) and domestic firms have been under surveillance of the… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office has its sights on a $30 billion-a-year natural gas export bonanza expected over the next few years, warning oil and gas giants not to follow the lead of the big miners and “inappropriately shift profits” by selling through tax haven Singapore. At the same time, it… – Continue reading
A showdown between the Australian Taxation Office and the nation’s largest companies including Chevron, Crown and BHP Billiton is looming as the tax man hits seven large companies with tax bills amounting to $2 billion. On Friday, the ATO released its corporate tax transparency report for 2014-15, which includes limited… – Continue reading
The “Big Four” global accounting firms – PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young – are the masterminds of multinational tax avoidance and the architects of tax schemes which cost governments and their taxpayers an estimated $US1 trillion a year, according to an Australian taxation expert. The controversial new claims… – Continue reading
ANALYSIS: Despite some action from both Labor and Coalition governments, multinationals are still using accounting tricks to avoid paying Australian tax.While politicians in Canberra bicker over whether or not to cut company tax, or whether it’s acceptable for effective income tax rates to rise through bracket creep, glaring leaks in… – Continue reading
Journalist Steve Topple investigates Bermuda-based big business tax avoidance and its links with UK political parties – and even some charities LAST WEEK saw the news emerge that everyone’s favourite search engine, Google, only had to pay £97m in back-tax (not the “major success” of £130m as was first reported)… – Continue reading
Case law Chevron appeal to the Full Federal Court Chevron Australia Holdings Pty Ltd has appealed the decision of the Federal Court in Chevron Australia Holdings Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation (No 4) [2015] FCA 1092 to the Full Federal Court. For details of the Federal Court decision, please… – Continue reading
The Australian Government’s efforts to improve tax collections are more urgent amid falling revenue from weak commodity prices, the Wall Street Journal reports Malcolm Turnbull’s government took the rare step of making public the tax affairs of scores of multinationals, highlighting that many big names—including Apple Inc. and Volkswagen AG… – Continue reading
Explosives maker Orica will take a $36 million hit to its bottom line after the Federal Court found it had avoided tax by using “round robin” financing arrangement it put in place a decade ago to boost its profit and ward off takeover bids. BusinessDay revealed Orica’s battle with the… – Continue reading
Bidness Etc takes a look at how Shell-BG merger is right on track, after receiving approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A) is just one step away from closing a merger deal with BG Group plc. On Thursday, December 3, the Anglo-Dutch company received… – Continue reading
Bermuda has been in the spotlight in Australia as senators examine the tax affairs of big business. An Australian senate committee set up to look at the tax affairs of major companies heard that oil giants Chevron had 200 companies registered in Bermuda and a further 200 registered in the… – Continue reading
Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan has become more picky about entering agreements with multinationals aimed at giving companies certainty about their tax payment requirements in Australia in future years. Taxpayers can lock in their tax payment for a period of about three years via an “advanced pricing agreement”, or APA. Technology… – Continue reading
Chevron, the US oil giant behind Australia’s biggest liquefied natural gas project, has been hit with claims its tax affairs are a “rort”. We have spent a year trying to find Australia’s biggest tax dodger and we’ve found it. It’s Chevron. Sam Dastyari But the company insists it is the… – Continue reading
UPDATE 12.45pm: Bermuda has a company tax rate of zero. In Ireland its 12.5 per cent and, with the Netherlands, has given the world the term “Double Irish Dutch Sandwich”. But a trio of prominent Australian business leaders have denied the tax links of their companies to the three offshore… – Continue reading
Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan says multinationals are already approaching the Australian Taxation Office to negotiate before the Turnbull government’s tougher anti-avoidance laws take effect in January, and he expects the office to reap $1.1 billion from them. We at the ATO acknowledge Australia needs investment by foreign companies in infrastructure… – Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE A federal tax designed to share profits from the oil and gas sector with the Australian public is barely raising a single extra dollar despite the industry’s transformation from a $5 billion concern a decade ago to a $60 billion export powerhouse. With Australia poised to become the world’s… – Continue reading
Exclusive PM underlines fairness test for GST ‘The fact of the matter is that any changes to the tax system will be fair’ says Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in question time on Monday. Australia’s peak union body is preparing for a major political fight with the Turnbull government over tax… – Continue reading
Key Points: The rejection of the Commissioner’s position on the relevance of credit rating agencies and the relevance of implicit support will give rise to uncertainty going forward, as it is unclear how an arm’s length interest rate can be practically determined. The Federal Court’s recent decision in Chevron Australia… – Continue reading
At a very high level, it’s a simple concept: a multinational borrows money from a related company overseas, and then uses the interest bill and the repayment methods to reduce tax exposure in Australia. If the loans – and the interest rates – are big enough, the tax savings can… – Continue reading
A decision by the Federal Court of Australia has key implications for transfer pricing of intercompany financing transactions, as well as implication for other broader intercompany arrangements. The case concerns the transfer pricing implications of an intercompany loan agreement between an Australian taxpayer and its U.S. subsidiary (CFC) and whether… – Continue reading
Profit-shifting has not paid off for petroleum multinational Chevron, slugged with a tax bill for $322 million thanks to a Supreme Court decision on Friday. Chevron has been under close scrutiny this year, particularly since a senate inquiry into tax-avoidance in April which also put mining giants BHP, Rio Tinto,… – Continue reading
Multinational oil giant Chevron has been hit with a tax bill of about $300 million after losing a landmark profit-shifting case that could have global implications for the way tax is assessed. The Australian Tax Office’s case in the Federal Court case has been closely watched by the tax and… – Continue reading
Oil and gas giant Chevron faces a massive tax bill after losing a long-running battle with the tax office over allegations the company used internal lending to reduce its Australian taxes. The Federal Court this morning ruled against Chevron in a landmark legal case that had argued the US multinational… – Continue reading
Chevron lost an appeal in Australian federal court that will see the US supermajor pay more than US$232 million (A$322 million) in back taxes, in addition to fines, after losing a case with the Australian Tax Office (ATO). The Aussie federal court ruled against Chevron, stating the company wrongly shifted… – Continue reading
Oil and gas multinational Chevron has come under fire in Australia for using Bermuda for tax avoidance. US-based Chevron, along with Anglo-Dutch firm Shell and the American ExxonMobil, is set to begin production at the massive Gorgon gasfield off the coast of Western Australia. But Chevron has been grilled by… – Continue reading
Chevron’s tax filings face repeated challenges from the United States and other global tax authorities, according to a new union-backed report that calls on world governments to crack down on the energy giant’s alleged profit-shifting tactics. The world’s largest trade union body, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), has called… – Continue reading
Nigeria’s 85 percent tax on onshore crude oil production is dissuading local investors from taking over assets from international oil companies, said Folorunso Alakija, an energy tycoon and the nation’s richest woman. Famfa Oil Ltd., founded in 1991 by Alakija, 64, has sought to acquire stakes in onshore oil fields,… – Continue reading
Tax professionals in Australia, in considering how to assess risk and prepare for potential controversy in light of the changing tax landscape, are focusing on a number of key themes. These include the following: The importance of assessing and contrasting positions taken, against positions that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)… – Continue reading
For the third year on the trot, Shell service stations generated billions of dollars and revenue but not a cent in company tax. In fact the owners of the sunny yellow servos reported tax benefits in all three years despite total sales which may be in excess of $60 billion…. – Continue reading
The Stunning Altera Case Employee stock options are an important part of compensation—both as income to the executives and as a deduction for the employer. But when stock options are used by multinational companies, the tax implications are complex and sometimes baffling. A new Tax Court case has just given… – Continue reading
What is the difference between 30 per cent of zero and 20 per cent of zero? Correct: precisely $5227.27 less than a Bronwyn-Bishop-taxpayer-funded helicopter trip from Melbourne to Geelong. A reduction in the corporate tax rate, as unrelentingly espoused by the business lobby in its pro-GST campaign, may be a… – Continue reading
Energy giants called to explain billions in tax havens To describe Gorgon as another super-sized resources project in Western Australia does not do justice to the scale and scope of the venture. When the taps are turned on later this year and liquefied natural gas begins to flow, Australia will… – Continue reading
Chevron Australia boss Roy Krzywosinski was complaining two weeks ago that taxes were too high in Australia. It was a pretty suave call from Krzywosinski. The latest financial statements for Chevron Australia Holdings show the company not only managed to avoid paying tax last year but it even pulled off… – Continue reading
1. Global focus on transfer pricing There has been a recent surge in regulatory attention around the world towards pricing arrangements within multinational corporate groups. Regulators are concerned that these pricing arrangements may be used as a means of profit shifting and therefore tax avoidance. The price at which an… – Continue reading
Premier Colin Barnett (left) and Chevron manager Colin Beckett at its LNG project on Barrow Island. Secretive oil major Chevron Corp has taken the art of tax avoidance to its ultimate form thanks to a scheme so aggressive that it goes beyond merely reducing exposure to income tax, but rather,… – Continue reading
Companies appearing before a senate inquiry into tax avoidance are on notice that any false evidence they give will be corrected by the Tax Office. Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan urged the committee to ask individual companies to disclose their own tax positions. He would correct the record if they provided… – Continue reading
Corporations like Apple shouldn’t get a sweetheart deal to “onshore” profits, tax expert Scott Klinger tells Salon One of the more consequential paradoxes of American politics concerns the myth and the reality of bipartisan legislation. The myth is that American voters want it, and they want it bad. In fact,… – Continue reading
Remember that $2.1 trillion of corporate tax profits parked overseas? Well, it’s still there (and growing every day) and politicians are still trying to find a way to lure or compel companies to bring it home. On Monday, President Obama sent a $478 billion transportation bill to Congress funded largely… – Continue reading
U.S. multinationals represent the healthiest segment of the economy, with higher profits and more than $1 trillion of cash on hand. This has kept corporate tax reform alive as a political issue. ON Semiconductor had a solid 2014, boosting net income by 36 percent to $196 million on revenue of… – Continue reading
Goldman Sachs is expected to earn up to $15 million for trading Chevron’s $4.73 billion Caltex Australia stake. Sources said Goldman had done the deal at the lower end of the block trade fee spectrum, charging the global oil giant an estimated 25 basis points for underwriting and selling the… – Continue reading
Seven of the biggest U.S. corporations received billions of dollars in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service, while dolling out an average of US$17.3 million to CEOs. While Congress is set to renew a slew of corporate tax breaks, new research published Tuesday found some of United States’ biggest… – Continue reading
You know those annoying “We Agree” television ads by the fossil fuel corporate giant Chevron? The ones where an actor playing a student or a concerned member of a community “agrees” with supposedly noble objectives of this multinational? Those ads make me feel like puking. The objective of this campaign… – Continue reading
When you buy an internet coupon deal from Groupon Australia you are likely to find the receipt says Groupon Zurich. You the customer reside here, the service which you are buying is provided here, Groupon has companies registered in Australia, yet the transaction routed through Zurich. Why? The corporate income… – Continue reading
Transactions within, rather than between, companies now accounts for about a quarter of Australia’s economic output, the Tax Office says. In a sign of the challenges facing the government’s crackdown on corporate tax erosion, the ATO said related-party dealings now amounted to more than a quarter of a billion dollars… – Continue reading
Australian tax authorities allege multinational oil giant Chevron used a series of loans and related party payments worth billions of dollars to slash its tax bill by up to $258 million. New documents filed in a long-running dispute in the Federal Court show how Chevron allegedly engaged in a complex… – Continue reading
Canada is clamping down on off-shore tax shelters used by private-equity funds, in a move that may curb investment in the oil and gas industry by KKR & Co. and Blackstone Group LP. (BX) The government has given private-equity firms and other interested parties until April 11 to respond to proposals tucked… – Continue reading
