The tax rort gets better, the arrogance is unbelievable.
Wake up Australia, we are being cheated
In May-June 2010, Australia's big miners led a $22 million ad campaign against the proposed resources super profits tax that ended when prime minister Kevin Rudd was deposed.
Their campaign was built on the claim that they already paid their fair share of tax. What they didn't say was that BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were under investigation for suspected tax avoidance at the time.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Minerals Council of Australia spent $17.2 million on these ads. BHP Billiton spent a further $4.2 million and Rio Tinto $537,000.
They gave detailed explanations of how much tax BHP and Rio already paid. What they didn't say was that BHP Billiton was channelling up to $US5 billion in revenues a year through Singapore, or that it was earning up to $US1 billion a year tax-free in Singapore profits which were moved to a Swiss company then to the Netherlands.
Rio Tinto similarly did not disclose that it would earn $US786 million in Singapore profits that year, on which it would pay $US37 million tax.
And neither BHP Billiton nor Rio disclosed that they were being audited on these almost tax-free profits by the Australian Taxation Office in 2010, when it was already clear that the ATO would seek multi-billion-dollar tax bills from the two miners.
http://www.copyright link/opinion/o...g-in-fight-over-resources-tax-20150407-1mfvs1
(20min delay)