Companies are shifting profits offshore to pay less tax (Gerard Rennick)

When General Motors was claiming they were never making a profit in Australia did anyone ever ask how much in interest, royalties and rent they paid offshore?

No - because the average Australian doesn’t understand profit shifting.

General Motors, like most multinationals shift enough “above the line profits” offshore to make sure they never make a below the line profit.

That’s because the rate of withholding tax on interest, royalties and rent is much less than 30 cents.

Our Tax Act encourages profits earned in Australia to go offshore rather than stay here.

That makes it harder for patriotic Australian businesses who don’t want to set up international structures to compete with foreign Multinationals and as such are often driven out of business because of the unfair legislation set up by our government.

If we want to get businesses back into Australian hands we need to tax foreign companies more, not less than Australian companies.



The domestic economies of countries around the world require protection. The problem outlined here is not unique to Australia. [Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, December 22, 2023.]