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Californian Fairytales: what Google, Facebook and Netflix told the Australian Tax Office

It’s been a golden era for Google Australia, Netflix Australia and Facebook Australia. Bunkered in pandemic lockdowns, Australians spent record time on their screens. How then did the digital giants rake in so much cash but pay so little tax? Michael West looks at the tall tales the multinational tax dodgers tell the Australian Tax Office.

Coinciding with the drama of the election, a slew of the world’s biggest companies have just quietly dropped their financial reports, a once-a-year affair which affords us a glimpse into how they, with their plotting advisers from EY, KPMG, Deloitte and PwC, are robbing Australia on the tax front.

We say “quietly” because they don’t post this important stuff on their websites. They hide it their statutory reports, furtively filed to the corporate regulator ASIC.

When it comes to multinational tax dodging the art is telling a story, spinning a good yarn to the Tax Office. They spin various yarns, like “we had to borrow $11bn from our other companies overseas” (Exxon), or “that $7bn in revenue is not really revenue like you think it is, duh” (Google), or “this is not really Australian income, though we made it from selling to Australians in Australia to watch on their Aussie TVs, it really belongs in a tax haven” (Netflix).

If it’s Big Pharma they have their armies of highly paid advisers and lawyers backing them on transfer pricing myths, that is, how their Australian companies had to pay high prices for those drugs to their other companies overseas – and that’s why profits are not very high here and we can’t afford to pay much tax.

The unifying factor in in these tall tales and untrue, is that their stories are designed to explain how they wiped out profits in Australia deliberately, and funnelled the money offshore. Where would you rather book a profit? In Bermuda, where the corporate tax rate is zero, or Australia, where it is 30%?

Google’s Elf Revenue, a Californian fairytale

Take Google Australia for instance, which has just reported its results for the year to December 2021. Its tax people over in Mountainview California have concocted a ripping yarn about Google’s revenue in Australia not really being like, er, revenue anyway, and its auditors EY have agreed it’s a great story and signed off on the Californian fairytale as “true and fair”.

The pandemic has been a golden era for the monsters of the digital economy, billions of people in lockdowns around the world, billions captive to their screens. You would think then that Google, Facebook, Netflix et al would have paid a lot of tax. Not so.

Take Netflix for example, the world’s number one streaming service. It is a true story that all they do is stream content from offshore into Australian homes but they take the “it’s not really an Australian business so we won’t pay tax here” fable to the realms of fantasy.

https://michaelwest.com.au/californian-fairytales-what-google-facebook-and-netflix-told-the-australian-tax-office/

Truckies warn of empty shelves and 'imminent' supply chain collapse due to 'disastrous' tax cut that was supposed to help Aussies

Over 50 per cent of trucking companies face bankruptcy because of fuel tax cut

Food and produce trucks will soon be forced off the road, industry body warns

Trucking companies want the Albanese government to bring back the fuel credit

Truckies are warning of an 'imminent collapse' to the nation's supply chain, claiming the fuel excise cut, that was supposed to ease the cost of living for Aussies, will force them off the road.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison made the decision to halve Australia's fuel excise tax back in March after Russia's invasion of Ukraine forced petrol prices through the roof.

While the tax cut was good for Aussies filling up at the pump, it's been 'disastrous' for truck companies, who were forced to shoulder most of the cost and saw their petrol discount taken away.

Truck drivers only see a 4.3 cent cut per litre in their diesel bills compared to the 22.1 cent cut enjoyed by the rest of the population.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10866683/Truck-companies-warn-national-supply-chain-collapse-fuel-tax-cut-forces-bankruptcy.html