Google in Australia claims an $8 billion digital service payment on their most recent tax return. Multinational multi billion tax avoidance downunder. This is how billion dollar profits are shifted to tax free territories like Bermuda, so as to minimise the tax payable in Australia. Thus, the wealthiest companies doing business in this nation pay a tiny percentage on the real revenue they generate here by creative accounting. In actual fact advertising in the digital sphere does not involve costly things like printing presses, ink and paper, so these payments for digital services are invented and bear no relation to anything real beyond IP. Australians are being ripped off by these multinationals and our governments do diddly squat about it.
US Digital Corporations Don’t Pay A Fair Share Of Tax In Australia
Who are these tax minimisers using loopholes in our tax laws to not pay their fair share of tax? Google, News Corp, Meta (Facebook & Instagram), Microsoft, Pepsi, Amazon, and Apple are all profit shifting tax avoiders in Australia.
“Amazon has paid little tax in Australia since setting up its local online retail business, its financial accounts show, with possibly hundreds of millions of dollars flowing offshore last year.
Key points: Amazon Australia has three local entities that combined paid $20 million tax on more than $1 billion in revenue last year Amazon is among other tech giants including Facebook and Google that use loopholes to legally reduce tax bills
The OECD is devising a plan to collect more tax from multinationals, but it could take years to implement
The company has used a range of tactics and loopholes to legally reduce the income taxes it pays around the world.
ABC News can reveal that, in Australia, Amazon’s three local entities had combined revenues of more than $1 billion but a combined tax bill of just over $20 million in 2018.”
A third of all large companies doing business in Australia paid no tax at all, according to the most recent ATO information.
Australia Voted Against International Corporate Tax Reform At The UN
“What happened at the United Nations General Assembly in November is hard to square with Australia wanting big companies to pay their share. In November, the assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution that called on all countries to work together to ensure multinationals pay tax in the locations in which they make their money. It established a committee to draft the terms of reference for a UN convention on international tax co-operation.
A total of 125 nations voted in favour of the resolution. Only 48 voted against it, one of which was Australia, along with Canada and New Zealand.”
Australian governments talk a big game about multinationals and tax but their efforts don’t live up to it. The federal government is complicit in many ways with these tax avoiding entities downunder. Whether it be from big donations to their political parties, the promise of high paying jobs post politics, whispers in the ears of ministers about it being for the good of the national GDP or a combination of all of the above successive governments of both persuasions seem happy for Australian workers to continue to carry the can when it comes to tax revenue downunder. The little people pay tax because they don’t have the highly paid accountants in their corner. The shift from being in opposition to government invariably dilutes the intentions of politicians when it comes to taxing the big end of town. Entrenched macro corruption is seemingly an intractable problem in Australia. The secretive NACC does bugger all about it!
Google Not Paying Their Fair Share Of Tax Downunder
Multinational multi billion tax avoidance downunder. Google is generating 8 to 10 billion dollars in revenue per annum in Australia and paying a pittance in tax in relation to this enormous amount of income. Government officials look away when considering such things, because they understand the way the game is played.
https://michaelwest.com.au/revealed-google-australias-6-billion-black-hole
The Digital Oligarchs Bought Trump
We live in what is called the digital age, where everything is much more convenient. Conveniently, for most of these American digital service companies they pay very little tax in Australia proportionate to their actual revenues. A little creative accounting by the Big 4 accounting firms like Ey, PwC, KPMG, and Deloitte – and hey presto! Not much tax to pay on multi-billion dollar revenue. Governments are dwarfed by these giant multinationals like Google, Apple and Amazon. Now, they have Trump, the bully, in their corner to threaten nations with tariffs too. This is why they swung their support Trump’s way and away from Biden/Harris, who was going to cut back their unregulated power. They bought Trump and got him elected in the US. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and the Google CEO were all kissing the ring at the inauguration. Power is a dirty game, even on the Internet.
“The ubiquitous uptake of digital devices has made the Orwellian dystopian realm a reality rather than just another good story. It has been progress based on the digital convenience and acceleration of processes. Everything we do now is quicker and expectations are for instantaneous results in terms of information being provided. Children love the games and the colourful displays inherent within these digital devices. In many ways, these devices have made us all more childlike in our unquestioning acceptance of how these digital technologies have changed our world. It is only now, that the true cost of this convenience is coming into the light. Surveillance capitalism has grown rich on our data – none of us have been paid anything for this resource. The state loves the technology because it can control us through our own digital record keeping and irresponsible surrendering of our rights to privacy. Businesses, largely multinational corporations, can extract rents from us all via our usage of these devices and their apps. Oligarchs have grown obscenely rich in hundreds and tens of billions of dollars. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiele, and the new AI technolords. They have all lined up behind Donald Trump.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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