The Federal Opposition has announced that it will “shut down loopholes that allow big multinationals to send … profits overseas”. Labor has announced that, in government, it would implement the following measures:
- *Worldwide Gearing Ratio – Tax deductions would be based on a company’s entire global operations, not just what they do in Australia.
- Hybrid Mismatches – Labor proposes to standardise Australia’s tax law with other countries “so that companies can’t ‘double-dip'”. Labor is proposing to better align Australia’s rules on hybrid entities and instruments with tax laws in other countries.
- Increased ATO compliance – Labor proposes more funding for the ATO. Labor is proposing that the ATO has the resources it needs to properly investigate and pursue multinational profit shifting.
- 3rd Party Data Matching – Early Start Date – Labor is proposing to bring forward to 1 July 2015 the start date on improved compliance through third party reporting and data matching that has been delayed by the Government. This measure was previously announced by Labor in the 2013-14 Budget. Labor said the Government had delayed this measure to 1 July 2016.
[LTN 41, 3/3/15]
FJM comment
This is more like it.