‘G20 must act to rein in corporate tax dodgers’
13 Nov 2014 12:11 AM GMT
World leaders at G-20 stage need to come together to check tax evasion running into billions of dollars globally by companies that use taxation loopholes in shifting profits from one country to another, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Wednesday.
Abbott, the host of the two-day G20 Summit beginning here on 16 November, said that the leaders of the world’s most advanced economies should use this platform to make a commitment to rein in such tactics used by companies to ‘minimise’ their tax liabilities.
Abbott said the world had a ‘collective self-interest’ to curb the rapidly growing practice of profit shifting by companies and tax evasion by wealthy individuals.
‘If they don’t, the burden would fall increasingly on a smaller pool of taxpayers,’ he added.
‘There’s a collective self-interest on everyone because if entity A pays less tax than it should, it means entities B, C, D, E, F, G. H, I etcetera are paying more tax than they should,’ he told The Australian Financial Review.
‘And while Australia’s company tax receipts are still relatively healthy, increasingly, companies have more and more opportunities to minimise their tax.
‘It’s in everyone’s interests —not that we overtax companies— that they do pay tax in the jurisdiction where they make their money,’ he said.
The report said Abbott will push fellow G20 leaders to make good on an agreement that was progressed by the finance ministers in Cairns in September to tackle evasion by companies and individuals.
Abbott, the host of the two-day G20 Summit beginning here on 16 November, said that the leaders of the world’s most advanced economies should use this platform to make a commitment to rein in such tactics used by companies to ‘minimise’ their tax liabilities.
Abbott said the world had a ‘collective self-interest’ to curb the rapidly growing practice of profit shifting by companies and tax evasion by wealthy individuals.
‘If they don’t, the burden would fall increasingly on a smaller pool of taxpayers,’ he added.
‘There’s a collective self-interest on everyone because if entity A pays less tax than it should, it means entities B, C, D, E, F, G. H, I etcetera are paying more tax than they should,’ he told The Australian Financial Review.
‘And while Australia’s company tax receipts are still relatively healthy, increasingly, companies have more and more opportunities to minimise their tax.
‘It’s in everyone’s interests —not that we overtax companies— that they do pay tax in the jurisdiction where they make their money,’ he said.
The report said Abbott will push fellow G20 leaders to make good on an agreement that was progressed by the finance ministers in Cairns in September to tackle evasion by companies and individuals.
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