Transparency in taxation matters among MNCs has recently been pushed up the international agenda, with leaders at the G8 meeting in Northern Ireland detailing a 10-point document calling for automatic tax information sharing between countries.
Chas Roy-Chowdhury, ACCA’s head of taxation in the UK, who has been meeting officials in Canberra this week, said there is the political will in Australia for greater regulation of MNCs.
“There is a real appetite among politicians to try and go it alone, but the Treasury are very keen to try and pull back on that,” Mr Roy-Chowdhury told InvestorDaily.
This, however, might change with the election of a new government, he added.
Mr Roy-Chowdhury, who has advised the European Parliament on international tax issues, said he thought Treasury has a good understanding of the dangers of Australia's legislating without international agreement, and that would likely dampen any political appetite to take unilateral action.
“[Treasury explained to politicians] that actually Australia is a very small jurisdiction and if you start going it alone, you are going to find that these multinationals are just going to relocate somewhere else,” he said. “There needs to be global agreement rather than one-off attempts by countries.”
