Australia's largest coalminer, Glencore, paid almost zero tax over the past three years, despite income of $15 billion, as it radically reduced its tax exposure by taking large, unnecessarily expensive loans from its associates overseas.
''The reality is that the whole of the Glencore Xstrata Group is now run as a series of business units controlled by one company (Glencore Xstrata Plc, incorporated in the UK, listed on the London and other stock exchanges), with its registered office in Jersey (a tax haven) and its head office is in Baar (Switzerland),''
''The truth is that Glencore Coal Investments Australia's operations in Australia are, because of the Group's business model, branch operations of the Swiss-domiciled parent entity, which uses the now dormant legal shell of an Australian body corporate in an attempt to hide the reality of its branch business in Australia.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/glencore-tax-bill-on-15b-income-zip-zilch-zero-20140626-3awg0.html
The ATO also recently received more than 2000 records of Australians who have bank accounts in Vanuatu and is analysing this data to identify previously undisclosed bank accounts.
While international co-operation should help reduce the problem, only an extreme optimist could believe that it will end tax evasion.
The rich are not inclined to be morally upright. They are more likely than the poor to steal candies from a baby (there are studies to show this).
Nevertheless they have few inhibitions about telling the masses what is wrong with society.
This was best illustrated in 2012 when Australia's wealthiest woman, Gina Rinehart, famously told Australians that they needed to work harder to compete with Africans who would labour for less than $2 a day.
The economic commentators who lecture us most frequently in the media come from the consultancies, banks and accounting firms that arrange the affairs of the rich to maximise profits and minimise tax. Repeatedly they tell us that we must raise productivity and grow the economic cake, but rarely do they raise the issue of wealth distribution, never mind the ethics of tax evasion and avoidance.
Nor do they ask when enough is enough.
A few wealthy individuals – most notably Bill Gates and Warren Buffett – have committed to give up most of their wealth. But they are the exception.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/tax-evasion-by-super-rich-hurts-every-australian-20150103-12...
This issue is not about jealousy or even greed....it is really about fairness.
