Green Left Weekly and ActionAid will be co-sponsoring a Political Economy Society seminar at Sydney University on October 29 to discuss the case for greater international efforts to combat corporate tax avoidance before the G20 summit.
Large corporations systematically avoid paying the statutory level of company tax — a low 30% in Australia — by numerous means including siphoning funds to notorious international tax havens.
One of the speakers at the seminar will be Dr Mark Zirnsak from the Tax Justice Network Australia, who helped write a report on corporate tax practices in Australia that revealed 14% of the top 200 companies in Australia pay no tax at all. The report also found 29% have an effective tax rate of 10% or less.
At the launch of this groundbreaking report Who Pays for Our Common Wealth? Tax Practices of the ASX 200, Zirnsak explained: “The frequent use of subsidiaries in secrecy jurisdictions in combination with the shifting of debt and profits is resulting in lost tax revenue in Australia and overseas where it should be paying for essential services to help lift people out of poverty.
“Last financial year a massive $47 billion flowed from Australia to secrecy jurisdictions.”
The Tax Justice Network estimated in 2012 that US$21-32 trillion was hidden in secret accounts in international tax havens.
The G20 leaders summit takes place in Brisbane next month. All the governments in the G20 claim to be in favour of reforming international rules to reduce this systematic tax avoidance and evasion by the corporate rich. But we will see if their efforts to curb corporate tax dodging match their extreme efforts to curb protest at the G20.
Another speaker at the seminar will be socialist writer John Passant, who is a former Assistant Commissioner of Taxation, and who has expressed strong scepticism about promises of international tax reform. “The cooperation of all the countries of the world in combating this, let alone the US, won’t happen. All the spin about automatic exchange of information is precisely that — spin,” Passant wrote in a blog post earlier this year.
“Corporate tax avoidance is systemic,” he said, citing Google's corporate chairperson Eric Schmidt’s defence of his company’s tax avoidance activities around the globe, which include funnelling almost $10 billion into Bermuda, saving $2 billion in taxes.
Schmidt boasted: “I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that the governments offered us to operate ... It’s called capitalism. We are proudly capitalistic. I’m not confused about this.”
The corporate rich certainly aren't confused about their interests and the system that serves them very well. The rest of us, who make up the large majority, should be equally clear about the fact that capitalism does not serve our common interests and now threatens to render this planet uninhabitable. That's the message that GLW seeks to get out.
Unfortunately, confusion is rife on the majority side. But you can help us fight this confusion. Take out a subscription to GLW, buy a subscription for a friend, and make a donation today to GLW fighting fund on the toll-free line at 1800 634 206 (within Australia).
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[The free USyd PEA seminar “Getting the G20 to Work on Corporate Tax Avoidance” will be held in the New Law School Seminar Room 022, Sydney University on Wednesday October 29, 4-7pm.]
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