While we are waiting for hearing transcripts to be published in the Australian Senate inquiry into tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation, here are a few 'facts' on record

This post is updated as new information becomes available.

According to the Australian Taxation Office:

In 2012-13, corporate tax revenue collections totalled $66.9 billion, 28.3% of the $236.6 billion in total income tax revenue, making it the second largest contributor to the tax revenue base after individuals…..

For public companies, those listed on the ASX account for 40.8% of net tax. The largest 200 ASX listed companies by market capitalisation6 contribute 97% of the net tax of all ASX-listed companies and the top 50 accounts for 82%.The financial services and mining sectors accounted for over half of the total corporate income tax revenue.

Australia has a corporate effective tax rate of 30%.

This week the Senate Inquiry into tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation by corporations registered in Australia and multinational corporations operating in Australia began its public hearings.

Also this week The Sydney Morning Herald reported that; Treasurer Joe Hockey personally approved a decision to shield companies sending billions of dollars offshore as part of apparent tax-dodging strategies from being named. Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan said in a letter to the Senate committee into corporate tax avoidance that Mr Hockey endorsed his decision not to release the names of ten resources companies that transferred a combined $31.4 billion to Singapore in the financial year 2011– 2012 and

The extraordinary scale of funds being moved out of the country by individual companies is revealed in an internal Australian Tax Office memo, obtained under Freedom of Information.

It lists 10 companies that channelled a combined $31.4 billion from Australia to Singapore in the 2011-2012 financial year. An estimated $60 billion in so-called "related parties" transactions went from Australia to tax havens in the same year.

While Australian voters wait to see what detail hearing transcripts may reveal here is a snapshot of what some companies, who all asserted that they complied with Australian taxation law, had to say about their own effective tax rates in submissions to the current Senate inquiry:

* Aurizon’s average effective tax rate for the period ended 30 June 2013 was 2%.

Auizon (formerly QR National Limited) was privatised in 2010 and is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. 

Aurizon asserts its low effective tax rate between 2011-13 arises as a result of Aurizon recently entering the federal tax regime

  

* Fortescue Metals Group Ltd’s effective tax rate for the period ending 30 June 2015 was 29.98%.

Fortescue has eight foreign subsidiaries which operate commercial businesses in their respective jurisdictions.

Fortescue has a US$ functional currency for income tax purposes.

* Mirvac Group admits to a low effective tax rate but declined to state a figure.

Mirvac Limited operates the development business which comprises of both residential and commercial development. Mirvac Property Trust maintains an investment portfolio that invests in office, retail and industrial assets. The Mirvac Group is an Australian business operating principally in Australia; the group has negligible overseas operations or investments.

Overseas operations and investments currently generate less than 0.2% total revenue of the Mirvac Group.

* Origin Energy Limited’s effective tax rate for the period ending 30 June 2014 was 15%.

Origin stated; with respect to effective tax rates we note that we have been unable to reconcile Origin’s financial information and lodged tax return data to the data presented in The Tax Justice Network - Australia report issued in September 2014. We have however provided our internal analysis of effective tax rates for the last 10 financial years ended 30 June 2014….

* Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu failed to mention its own effective tax rate status.

* Toll Group’s “normalised” effective tax rate for the period ending 30 June 2014 was 23%.

“Normalised” is defined as; Eliminating large once-off adjustments such as the impact of impairments etc.

* ANZ Bank denies having an effective tax rate of 27% for the period 2004 to 2013. It asserts a tax rate of 29.3% in 2013 and, a global effective tax rate of 32% in that same year.

* Rio Tinto stated; the corporate income tax charge to the UK statutory tax rate of 23%. The effective corporate income tax rate on underlying earnings was 34.9%.

“Underlying earnings” are; An alternative measure of earnings which is reported by earnings Rio Tinto to provide greater understanding of the underlying business performance of its operations.
The company reportedly set up a marketing hub in Singapore around 2005 when Rio Tinto Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd was created. This marketing hub's effective tax rate is est. 5% per annum until 2022 and, Rio Tinto's Australian operations are billed for ore sales by Rio Tinto Singapore in order to transfer cash to this low tax country bypassing a percentage of Australian tax.

* Newcrest Mining declined to state an effective tax rate, instead stating its; taxation payment profile over the last decade has been lower than would be anticipated by reference to its reported accounting  profit due entirely to the application of ordinary Australian taxation rules…

* Macquarie Group stated; Macquarie’s effective tax rate is largely driven by the geographic location and mix of the income derived in any particular reporting period. The Group’s tax rate has been 38% or higher for each of the last four reporting periods. The amount of income tax paid will vary from the Group’s effective tax rate in any given period……

* Google Australia did not state an effective tax rate for its Australian operations. Instead stating that globally its overall corporate tax rate in 2014 was about 19%.

Google Australia also mentioned that Singapore had a tax rate of 17% and reportedly admitted that most of its Australian revenue was booked by an affiliate business in Singapore, presumably to take advantage of Singapore’s lower corporate flat tax rate for profits above S$300,000.

* Lend Lease denied its effective tax rate was 15% for the 10 year period to 30 June 2013. Citing instead a statutory effective tax rate of 21.2%.

* BHP Billiton did not state the effective tax rate on its Australian operations. Instead stating that its; average global effective tax rate for the past three years is 29.3%.

All calculations used in its submission are in US currency. 
BHP Billiton has set up a marketing hub in low tax Singapore. 
It refused to answer questions during the Senate inquiry hearing concerning details of this marketing hub. 
However, a document titled BHP Billiton Marketing AG Singapore Branch Registration Number: F00006681W Annual Report Year ended 30 June 2014 became publicly available.
This document disclosed that for the period ending 30 June 2014 the company had an effective tax rate in Singapore of 17%. 
The company having been granted the status of a Pioneer Service Company (Certificate No. COY-10- IHQ/B340-1/2) by the Singapore Government, the effective tax rate had no effect and therefore BHP Billiton paid no Singapore taxes between 1 July 2005 and 1 July 2015.

It has also been granted the Development and Expansion incentive (Certificate No. SO5/1-23624909) which gives it a concessional tax rate of 5% from 2020.

BHP Billiton's total comprehensive income for the financial year 2013-14 ($941.174 million) appears to have been processed through its Singapore marketing hub and then repatriated to its head office incorporated in Baar, Switzerland.

* AGL Energy denied that it had an effective tax rate for the seven years to 30 June 2013 of 24% and that the average annual tax foregone by AGL was $26m per annum. 

Instead asserting that its effective tax rate for those years was closer to the corporate tax rate of 30%.

It stated an effective tax rate for the period ending 30 June 2014 of 28% based on underlying profit before tax and, an effective tax rate of 25% for the same period based on statutory profit before tax.

* Microsoft Australia stated its effective tax rate in Australia for each of fiscal years 2014, 2013, and 2012 was above Australia’s statutory tax rate of 30%. 

However, the company’s regional operating centres in Ireland, Puerto Rico & Singapore generated 81% of its foreign earnings in 2014 and these earnings appear to have a combined tax rate of 17.1%.

The Singapore operating centre represents billions in customer revenue earned and operating expenses incurred serving 18 countries throughout Asia Pacific, including Australia.

The profits earned throughout Asia Pacific are earned primarily by the Singapore ROC group. Microsoft admitted that all $2 billion in Australian 2014 revenue was paid to its Singapore regional operating centre.

* Apple Pty Ltd incorporated in Australia asserted it paid an effective tax rate of over 30% in Australia in the two years after the Advanced Pricing Agreement with the Australian Tax Office has expired.  However, the Australian company is wholly-owned by Apple Ireland and the majority of its revenue is transferred through billings to Ireland where it would appear the effective tax rate can be as low as 12.5% for trading income and 25% on all other income including non-trading income and non-qualifying foreign dividends.

News Corp and attitude to Australian taxation

It comes as no surprise that multinational media player News Corp Australia appears to believe it pays an adequate amount of corporate tax on its operations and carefully omits any mention of the group’s alleged tax avoidance measures in this country reportedly allowing it to repatriate $4.5 billion by making a "return of capital" to its New York parent over two years.

News Corp’s brief submission by invitation to the Senate Inquiry into tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation by corporations registered in Australia and multinational corporations operating in Australia stated:

Over the past five financial years, News Corp Australia, which employs close to 9,000 Australians, had an accounting profit before tax of $815.9m, and paid $417.3m in Australian taxes. During this same period, News Corp Australia paid an additional $900m in Australian goods and services, fringe benefit and payroll taxes.

At the same time it listed actual taxes paid (including withholding tax) in each year over those same five financial years:

* 2010 $113.9 million - effective tax rate of est. 23.1%

* 2011 $96.4 million

* 2012 $57.7 million

* 2013 $64.2 million - effective tax rate of 16.9%

* 2014 $85.1 million -  effective tax rate est. 23.9%-26.4%

TOTAL $417.3 million

So getting back to that $4.5 billion sent overseas…..

In 2013 News Corp Australia had an accounting profit before taxes of $627.4 million, paid $64.2 million in Australian taxes and sent est $3.2 billion in shares from its Australian operations back to its U.S.A. parent company.

In 2014 News Corp Australia had an accounting profit before taxes of $355.9 million, paid $85.1 million in Australian taxes and sent $1.3 billion in cash from its Australian operations back to its U.S.A. parent company.

Which looks suspiciously like the parent company received a $4.5 billion windfall with a tax rate of under 4 per cent applying to this “repatriation”.

The Sydney Morning Herald on 6 April 2015 reported:

According to calculations by University of NSW accounting academic, Jeffrey Knapp, over the past 10 years, Mr Murdoch's companies here have paid income tax equivalent to a rate of 4.8 per cent on $6.8 billion in operating cash flows, or just 10 per cent of operating profits. 

Note: In 2014 News Corp also received a court-ordered tax reimbursement for years between 2001-09 of $623.8 million (plus interest).

Election's over and it's same old, same old from the Nationals MP for Clarence

Nationals MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis who has never voted anything but the Sydney-centric Liberal Party line had this to say in The Daily Examiner on 3 April 2015:

CHRIS Gulaptis has defended the downgrading of the Minister for the North Coast saying as Parliamentary Secretary he will have more time to take his constituents' North Coast issues to cabinet.

The Clarence MP's appointment came as part of the Baird Grant cabinet reshuffle announced on Wednesday.

If ever there was an empty promise it would be that one.

For the political tragics out there.....

Although the Nationals retained the seat, only 48.89% of those who voted in the Clarence electorate are known to have put Chris Gulaptis first on their ballot papers on 28 March 2015.  

By 6 April and with final counting not yet completed, the swing away from him was 22 per cent after the distribution of preferences. Currently the margin for his seat stands at around 9.4 per cent - down from 31.4 per cent in 2011 reported by election analyst Antony Green.

MANDATORY DATA RETENTION: Many a true word has been spoken in jest*

No-one was laughing in my house when this reply by the Australian Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, Jamie Briggs, turned up in the Twitter timeline of Crikey journalist Bernard Keane:

* An old saying of unknown origin

Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton: a photo study in lifestyle contrasts

This is 109 Jefferson Lane, Palm Beach, Queensland. It is what is described as an investment property owned by the Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Craig Dutton.

He reportedly purchased it for $2.32 million. In September 2014 the real estate agent described it as a lifestyle address that is simply unrivalled.

This is where many of the asylum seekers in his care live. None of this accommodation can be described as ‘a lifestyle address’.

All detention centre images were found at Google Images

As we approach the Abbott Government's second set of Budget Papers due in May 2015 - a timely reminder of how far we are going backwards

Sky News on 3 April 2015 telling Australia what social media commentators have known since December 2013:

In the year ended 30 June 2013 the then Labor Federal Government reported total revenue of $338.7 billion, total expenses of $381.4 billion (est. 25.1% of GDP) and a fiscal balance deficit of $28 billion. Net government debt and net interest payments on that debt stood at stood at 10 and 0.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) respectively.

The Abbott Coalition Government was sworn in on 18 September 2013.

In the month Tony Abbott took hold of the reins of government the Department of Finance listed Australia’s net debt at $174.5 billion and an underlying cash balance (deficit) of $22.9 billion projected to fall to $18 billion by 30 June 2014.

The Abbott Government reported total revenue of $374.6 billion, total expenses of $415.2 billion (est. 26.2% of GDP) and a fiscal balance deficit for the year ended 30 June 2014 of $42.2 billion. At that time net government debt stood at 12.5 per cent of GDP and net interest payments at 0.6 per cent.

In February 2015 and just on halfway through the Abbott Government’s term in office, the Department of Finance listed net debt at $254.9 billion and an underlying cash balance (deficit) of $40.4 billion projected to fall to $40.3 billion by 30 June 2015. At which time net government debt is expected to be 13.9 per cent of GDP and net interest payments at 0.7 per cent of GDP.

So why did budget deficit and public debt increase so dramatically in those first nine months and why is it barely decreasing to date?

Well, there have been signposts along the way and the most obvious place to start is with the borrowing spree that Treasurer Joe Hockey went on almost from Day One of the Abbott Government.

By 4 December 2013 (after less than 3 months in office) Abbott Government borrowings were averaging in excess of $203 million a day. At 30 June 2014 borrowings stood in excess of $351 billion and the 2014-15 budget papers predicted that borrowings will be 23.3% of GDP by 30 June 2015.

Then there was the $8.8 billion grant to the Reserve Bank in October 2013 and the loss of est. $2.9 billion over the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years due to the repeal of the Mineral Resources Rent Tax.

Add to this the cost of The War On Terror conducted Abbott-style, which is conservatively estimated to cost $400 million in this year alone for troops deployed in the Syria region, plus the $5.3 million a month cost of an ongoing and inevitably fruitless search for a long gone commercial aircraft.

Throw in the approximately $4.7 million spent on the prime ministerial fleet of bomb-proof cars (which will be stationed around the country for Abbott's convenience) and the est. $250 million reportedly being spent on a new VIP aircraft sometime this year primarily for the prime minister's use .

Factor in the cost of servicing political egos found in the Dept. of Finance lists of parliamentary entitlements paid and the additional expense of VIP flights for political elites.

Add the est. $2.4 billion in tariff revenue foregone due to international trade agreements signed since 2013, along with the est. $86 million spent on two royal commissions into 'pink batts' and trade unions.

Pour in the mix that $400 million plus reportedly spent on hosting the G20 Summit in 2014.

Then toss in a reported $1 billion in public service redundancy payouts expected to flow from the Abbott Government's 'restructuring' of government departments and downsizing of the public service between September 2013 to 2016-17.

Insert the increasing costs of immigration detention and the in excess of $2 billion in contracts awarded in early 2104 for the management of two overseas detention centres. This equates to these contracts costing over $420 million annually. The National Commission of Audit's February-March 2014 report states the projected detention costs for all centres over the forward estimates currently exceeds $10 billion.

Top it all off with the unfair 2014-15 federal budget, which for all the ideologically driven pain it intended to inflict was expected to only save $27 billion over a four-year period and which has now been effectively gutted by the Abbott Government is a desperate grab for some degree of popularity.

Combine all of the above with Prime Minister Abbott's recent conversion to a 'debt is good' philosophy and it is easy to see why government finances are mired in red ink. With the non-Treasury document being circulated by the Treasurer, the March 2015 Intergenerational Report Australia in 2055, predicting net government debt could be as high as 60 per cent of GDP in forty years' time.

Now Tony Abbott has abandoned his 'debt and deficit disaster' rhetoric he has decided that the real budgetary crisis is actually federal government spending. Spending is probably the slowest growing line item in all the aforementioned figures, nevertheless Abbott was quoted in The Australian on 2 April 2015 as stating;even with the changes that we’ve already made, we’re still heading for government spending at around 31 per cent of GDP".

If all this sounds a mite confusing, remember one of the features of budget predictions and economic outlooks produced by the Abbott Government to date is that rarely do all of the documents contain the same basic assumptions or numbers. Since September 2013 creative writing not reliable economic policy appears to be the order of the day.