Report - Part 1

Part 1: You cannot tax what you cannot see

18 August 2015

© Commonwealth of Australia 2015
ISBN 978-1-76010-274-6

View the report as a single document - (PDF 655KB)
View corrigendum - (PDF 27KB)


View the report as separate downloadable parts:

Senate Economics References Committee (PDF 20KB)
Executive Summary - Recommendations (PDF 29KB)

Background to the interim report
Evidence of tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation
Multilateral efforts to combat tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation
Potential areas of unilateral action to protect Australia's revenue base
Recommendation 4
Recommendation 5
Recommendation 6
Recommendation 7
Recommendation 8
Recommendation 9
The capacity of Australian government agencies to collect corporate taxes
Recommendation 11
Recommendation 12
Recommendation 13
Recommendation 14
Recommendation 15
Recommendation 16
Recommendation 17

Chapter 1 - Background to the inquiry (PDF 41KB)

Conduct of inquiry
Submissions and public hearings
Background to inquiry
Scope of this inquiry
Structure of this report

Chapter 2 - Overview of Australia's corporate tax system (PDF 66KB)

Introduction to Australia's corporate income tax system
International aspects of corporate taxation
Tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation have broad impacts

Chapter 3 - Evidence of corporate tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation (PDF 120KB)

The robustness and responsiveness of Australia's corporate tax system
Recurrent and emerging challenges
Comparing effective tax rates has limitations
Australia has measures to address multinational tax avoidance

Chapter 4 - Multilateral initiatives to address avoidance and aggressive minimisation (PDF 65KB)

Overview of the multilateral tax reform initiative
Will multilateral tax reform through the BEPS Project be effective?

Chapter 5 - Potential areas of unilateral action to protect Australia's revenue base (PDF 95KB)

Scope for unilateral action
Improving public transparency
Addressing the avoidance of permanent establishment status
Competitive disadvantages arising from inconsistent application of tax laws

Chapter 6 - Facilitating government agencies to collect corporate tax and protect public revenue (PDF 85KB)

Australian Taxation Office
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

Government Senators' Dissenting Report (PDF 22KB)

Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law
Country-by-Country reporting
Voluntary disclosure code
Private company transparency
ATO resourcing
Marketing hubs

Additional Comments from the Australian Greens (PDF 33KB)
Appendix 1 - Submissions and additional information received (PDF 36KB)
Appendix 2 - Public hearings and witnesses (PDF 18KB)
Appendix 3 - The metric (PDF 47KB)

Denominator
Numerator
General comments
Comments in relation to profit of the economic group
Comments in relation to tax paid
Comprehensive normalised profit
Effective tax paid
Metrics to assess the global tax performance of multinationals in relation to Australian linked business operations

Committee Secretariat contact:

Senate Standing Committees on Economics
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Phone: +61 2 6277 3540
economics.sen@aph.gov.au