Hockey cracks down on multinationals

TREASURER JOE HOCKEY HAS INTRODUCED ANTI-TAX AVOIDANCE MEASURES AIMED AT MULTINATIONALS

MULTINATIONAL ANTI-AVOIDANCE LAW

* From January new laws will stop multinationals artificially avoiding a taxable presence in Australia.

* The taxation commissioner will have greater powers to force companies to pay tax on profits made in Australia by making it easier for the ATO to establish a tax avoidance case.

* It's aimed at 1000 global entities with revenues over $1 billion.

PENALTIES

* Large companies found using tax avoidance or profit-shifting schemes face maximum penalties of 120 per cent of the amount of tax avoided, backdated to July 1, 2015.

COUNTRY-BY-COUNTRY REPORTING

* A recommendation of the G20/OECD requires large multinationals to notify the ATO of their income tax and tax paid in every country in which they operate.

* This will allow the ATO to remove the secrecy of the tax behaviour of large multinationals beyond Australia's shores, such as profit shifting.

REVENUE

* The tax commissioner says at least "hundreds of millions of dollars" could be collected from the estimated the billions of dollars earned in sales in Australia.