ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES – AUSTRALIA

Tax office in stunning U-turn on gold fraud

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Original article by Robert Gottliebsen
The Australian – Page: 19 : 12-Jan-17

Under the Howard government’s tax reforms, Australian gold refiners were required to pay GST on gold that is not of investment grade, although investment-grade gold in bars did not attract GST. Refiners warned the Australian Taxation Office that the system was subject to widespread fraud, which is estimated to have cost taxpayers around $A600m. The ATO targeted gold refiners, believing that they were involved in the massive tax fraud, and its actions threatened the nation’s entire refining industry. The ATO subsequently backed down in late 2016 and agreed to measures first proposed by gold refiners some three years earlier. They will now be permitted to buy high-purity gold that is not marked as being of investment grade without attracting GST.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, FOCUS MINERALS LIMITED – ASX FML, AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT. AUSTRALIAN TRANSACTION REPORTS AND ANALYSIS CENTRE, AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF TAXATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Census meltdown to cost $30m

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Original article by Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 2 : 20-Oct-16

The shutdown of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ census website on 9 August 2016 will cost up to $A30 million. Chief statistician David Kalisch has told the Senate estimates committee that $A20m has already been spent. He expects the ABS to spend another $A10m. IBM stated in a submission to the committee that the website was ready to be reactivated within three hours but the actions of other organisations extended the delay to 40 hours.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, AUSTRALIAN SIGNALS DIRECTORATE, IBM AUSTRALIA LIMITED, NEXTGEN PTY LTD

ABS threat to axe IR dispute data

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Original article by David Uren
The Australian – Page: 3 : 14-Oct-16

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) may be unable to collect information on industrial disputes because of budget constraints. Chief statistician David Kalisch said other services that are vulnerable to cuts include retail trade, housing and lending finance reports. Their monthly frequency is under threat. The ABS could also reduce the number of reports on Australia’s global trade.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, HSBC AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

ATO drops boom on marketing hubs

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Original article by Neil Chenoweth
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 6 : 10-Aug-16

The use of offshore marketing hubs by resources groups will attract greater scrutiny from the Australian Taxation Office. The proposed crackdown will result in such companies being subject to stricter auditing and disclosure requirements if they are not completely transparent about their marketing arrangements. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto both use marketing hubs in Singapore, while the ATO is concerned that the oil and gas industry may pursue profit-shifting arrangements as LNG exports ramp up.

CORPORATES
BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, CHEVRON CORPORATION, CHEVRON AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, BP PLC, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, EXXONMOBIL CORPORATION

ATO leads global attack on Panama tax haven

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Original article by Neil Chenoweth
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 9 : 13-Apr-16

The Australian Taxation Office’s Mark Konza will chair a meeting of international tax officials in Paris. The meeting has been convened by Australia’s Tax Commissioner, Chris Jordan, in response to the leaking of the tax haven documents of Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca. Jordan will propose establishing a global investigation into tax evasion which would involve tax experts from 28 nations. The leaked documents include the names of about 800 Australians.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, MOSSACK FONSECA, INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS, ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, JOINT INTERNATIONAL TAX SHELTER INFORMATION AND COLLABORATION NETWORK, AUSTRALIAN CRIME COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT. AUSTRALIAN TRANSACTION REPORTS AND ANALYSIS CENTRE

Good, bad, ugly: ATO reveals all

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Original article by Neil Chenoweth, Primrose Riordan, Edmund Tadros, Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 7 : 18-Dec-15

Some 579 of the 1,539 public companies whose tax details were released on 17 December 2015 did not pay any tax in Australia in fiscal 2014. The Australian Taxation Office figures cover 554 companies based in Australia and 985 foreign-owned companies, and show that Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Acer and Citrix Systems are among the companies that paid no tax. BHP Billiton had the highest corporate tax bill, at $A4.1bn.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, HEWLETT-PACKARD AUSTRALIA LIMITED, TOSHIBA (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD, ACER INCORPORATED, CITRIX SYSTEMS INCORPORATED, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, APPLE INCORPORATED, MICROSOFT CORPORATION, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, CAPGEMINI AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NOKIA AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, ALCATEL-LUCENT AUSTRALIA LIMITED, SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO, CSL LIMITED – ASX CSL, MITSUI AND COMPANY LIMITED, ITOCHU CORPORATION, NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION, SUMITOMO CORPORATION, ESSO AUSTRALIA RESOURCES LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Top corporations paid zero tax

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Original article by Nassim Khadem
The Age – Page: 10 : 17-Dec-15

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will release the tax details of 1,539 companies on 17 December 2015. The document will show that 38 per cent of the companies did not pay any tax in 2013-14. ATO Acting Second Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn said that these companies were not necessarily engaged in tax avoidance.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Don’t trust the jobs data, says ex-chief statistician

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Original article by Jacob Greber
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 15-Oct-15

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) veteran Bill McLennan has questioned the validity of the agency’s current methodology for compiling the monthly labour market survey. The ABS changed its methodology in 2014, but McLennan says the labour market data has little value because the old and new systems should have operated in tandem for a while to confirm the accuracy of the new system. The ABS’s David Kalisch is confident that there are no problems with the jobs data produced by the agency.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Census cost could be better spent, says ABS

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Original article by Jacob Greber
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 20-Feb-15

The cost of Australia’s 2011 national census is estimated to have exceeded $A400m, prompting the Australian Bureau of Statistics to propose abolishing the next census in 2016. The bureau argues that the cost savings could be used to upgrade its IT systems and undertake annual population surveys with a much smaller sample of respondents. Reducing the frequency of the census from five years to 10 is also believed to be under consideration

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, FAMILY FIRST PARTY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES. CENTRELINK, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES. MEDICARE AUSTRALIA

ATO urged to stop valuations

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Original article by Nassim Khadem
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 20-Jan-15

A review of the Australian Taxation Office’s administration of valuation matters was issued by Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on 19 January 2015. The review, by Inspector-General of Taxation Ali Noroozi, proposed that valuation only be required "where it has the highest net benefit". Noroozi states that the valuation process has been innately subjective. One of the review’s nine recommendations is that businesses smaller than a certain size be exempt from undertaking valuations

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, BDO AUSTRALIA LIMITED, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, CORPORATE TAX ASSOCIATION, AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF TAXATION