News flash! Big companies avoid tax!

WTF? I find it beyond belief that all of a sudden the Australian gov has woken up to the fact that big multi-national companies pay fuck all tax here, using tax havens around the world to minimise it. This has been going on for decades, whichever major party was ruling in Canberra. 

Who could forget the late Kerry Packer, rich Australian mogul or something, got taken to court in 1998 for tax avoidance. He evidently didn't pay tax on $1 billion. Guess who won the case? Read on if you haven't heard of this, it's quite incredible.

Kerry Packer was not only Australia's richest organ transplant recipient, but reputedly the nation's greatest tax minimiser — and proud of it. 

Mr Packer paid what he was legally obliged to and, as he told a Senate committee in 1991, "not a penny more, not a penny less". 

He said that "anyone in this country" who did not minimise their tax "wants his head read" because governments did not spend wisely enough to warrant taxpayers "donating extra". 

In 1998, he won a court battle with the Australian Tax Office to cut his three-year income tax bill from $40 million to nil. 

His victory in the Federal Court capped a seven-year retreat by the Tax Office over its claim the Packer group should pay tax on more than $1 billion of income, and that Mr Packer personally owed $40 million. 

Mr Packer had rejected a revised offer that he settle by paying tax of $30.55 (a hefty cut of $39,999,969.45) and his companies pay just $25,000. more

Yep, earned $1 billion, paid no tax, and it was all legal. Made me feel really shitty at the time on the factory floor, paying 50% tax back then on overtime. 

That was a shining example, and likely far less secretive than what Australian multi-national companies are doing now. Here's a look from todays Sydney Morning Herald:

And now the gov, strapped for cash, has finally gone "Oh shit. We need money. What about all these multi-nationals paying fuck all then?". I doubt very much there's any sort of moral motive from the gov to fix the system. It's simply that the mining boom is stalling and the gov, used to rolling in it, is now coming up short of $ to fund it's election promises.

I do feel of course that these companies should pay their fair share, but it's a bit little a bit late now. The billions have bolted. And I do find the Canberra hypocrisy sickening.