ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[Awesom Andy]

Not charging one tax means the revenue has to be made up from somewhere else. e.g SIN has very low personal income and company taxes, but a Camry is $120k on the road (more than half the cost goes to the government).

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Why not set Australia up as a "Tax Haven" and have companies earn their profits here?

Every Australian wins. Extra tax revenue, incentive to save and invest, no need to "offshore" profits.

That would just help all the companies pay less tax, rather than ones who have offsore operations (or "head offices"). So "every" Australian would lose.

Being a Tax Haven works when you can make a lot of money with a small tax rate mainly because you have little business yourself. ie Tax Havens are mainly countries with very small populations.

Taxes are not evil. You need then to pay for infrastructure and services. Tax Havens only survive becasue they are parasites on other countries.

What you need is for everyone and every company to pay their fair share. It is way too easy for International Companies in Australia to avoid paying their fare share.

 

[jamesD]

Not charging one tax means the revenue has to be made up from somewhere else. e.g SIN has very low personal income and company taxes, but a Camry is $120k on the road (more than half the cost goes to the government).

Or the government could be a lot more efficient in its delivery of services instead. I worked for a State Govt for a while and I remember thinking while I was there that there would be rioting in the streets if the public new the magnitude of waste.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Or the government could be a lot more efficient in its delivery of services instead. I worked for a State Govt for a while and I remember thinking while I was there that there would be rioting in the streets if the public new the magnitude of waste.

There is no need for "or", it should be both.

 

[cove]

Tonight I helped the country run for a few micro seconds and the multiple receipts were so close together almost no one else was paying the ATO. Of course in California it is yesterday morning so I wasn't burning any midnight oil. Oh and a special thank you to a Bank with an AN in its name. We will miss you.

 

[turnip666]

That would just help all the companies pay less tax, rather than ones who have offsore operations (or "head offices"). So "every" Australian would lose.

Being a Tax Haven works when you can make a lot of money with a small tax rate mainly because you have little business yourself. ie Tax Havens are mainly countries with very small populations.

Taxes are not evil. You need then to pay for infrastructure and services. Tax Havens only survive becasue they are parasites on other countries.

What you need is for everyone and every company to pay their fair share. It is way too easy for International Companies in Australia to avoid paying their fare share.

When did "fair" replace efficient and effective?

 

[burmans]

When did "fair" replace efficient and effective?

That comments suggests the two are mutually exclusive but I think a far number of people (if not most) would suggest it should be both fair AND efficient and effective.

 

[quokka77]

If it were easy to eliminate transfer pricing it would have been done already. I do think we should try harder. No doubt all the leadership teams in all the big and medium-sized businesses across Australia are looking enviously at what Apple, Google and the others have done (via Singapore, the Netherlands, Ireland and other places) and thinking: "wow, I need to re-organise the company's affairs!"

 

[quokka77]

Eg: last week it was revealed McDonald's doubled the volume of money pumped through its Singapore branch, out of Australia, with a concomitant 50% reduction in its tax liability.

 

[quokka77]

That Singapore benefits so richly out of Australian big businesses is particularly galling. Their leaders seem so sanctimonious about the benefits of a low tax, tough law and order, almost single party state. Dig a little deeper and it's all offshore profits, and indentured labour.

 

[Duffa]

Ladies please!!!
Can we get back OT.
Where I am going to off load my 6 figure BAS from 1/3/16?
QCU? WOW?
I don't have Westie Kris any more
Struggling........

 

[quokka77]

I think Macquarie may still work Duffa...
CBA platinum business will work until you hit the cap (100000 I think?). HSBC?

 

[Duffa]

I think Macquarie may still work Duffa...

Ah, yes. Forgot that one, thanks.

 

[quokka77]

Maybe even the lowly QCC or Velocity prepaid equivalent?

 

[Kangol]

I'm no tax lawyer but we do have laws about profit shifting, so am not sure this is a yes or no answer. It may be "legal" as to what these companies are doing but it's certainly not in the spirit of the law, and I'm not even sure of the first given it involves multinational jurisdictions and laws which don't force companies to disclose the information on which we could form such an opinion.

In addition, I think its the wrong question, the question is whether it should be legal. We change laws all the time, this is one we should be.

Respectfully, it is the right question, regardless of what you think, given that the topic was about catching companies who are not doing illegal things.

If you want to change the topic about whether it should be legal/ethical or what the law should be (spiritually) about, then that is a valid discussion topic but completely different to the one you responded to.

Just saying.

 

[cove]

Today we are really stoked on account of our US AA Citibank credit cards that we cycle ATO through. We are upgraded to First and sitting in the Admirals Club.
I noted we earned $18 USD in our US bank in 2015 which we declare in OZ. Citi accepted our world income so that worked.
Citibank have increased our credit limits again so we have plenty of wriggle room.
AA miles are pretty good for Etihad pointy end redemptions.
Also we enjoyed the AA business class ride on the 777 from Sydney to Los Angeles.

 

[awkwardpaws]

Today we are really stoked on account of our US AA Citibank credit cards that we cycle ATO through.

cove, quick question, how did you get a US credit card? do you have a SSN / lived in the US before?

 

[Scr77]

Ladies please!!!
Can we get back OT.
Where I am going to off load my 6 figure BAS from 1/3/16?
QCU? WOW?
I don't have Westie Kris any more
Struggling........

Im yet to notice anyone try the Bank Australia CC.

Lets try not to strangle QCU.

 

[cove]

You could read "Establishing A Credit Rating In America" blog on AFF.
Yes we have SSNs marked "Not valid for employment" from 1984.
We do live part time in California.

 

[burmans]

If it were easy to eliminate transfer pricing it would have been done already. I do think we should try harder.

I agree its not easy but I also feel it cant be as hard as some are making out. What Apple, Google and a fair few others are doing doesn't pass the sniff test, and any blind fool can see it is actually profit shifting. The reason I say this is that its fairly clear that these companies are making money in Australia, there's a threshold cost to doing business in any country, if you were not making enough profit to meet that threshold the rational business decision is to close that business. None of these companies have indicated any desire not to do business here.

So they all are clearly making money from their Australian operations, they have just organised their affairs so as not to be taxed here, that's clearly profit shifting under most people definition. And in fact the ATO do have existing laws that cover this. The problem would seem to be that there is insufficient transparency on how the companies are achieving this, i.e. the ATO doesn't have the power/ability to investigate in depth and make a case that would stand up in court. So I think greater transparency is first part of the answer, and to get this the ATO probably requires some transparency not only of local operations but also the overseas operations.