This Month
Gold miner St Barbara hit with $210m PNG tax demand
The company’s ASX-listed shares fell 36 per cent after subsidiary Simberi Gold was handed a taxation bill that could endanger its viability.
- Mark Wembridge
- Updated
- Social media
Media groups to push Meta for payment after Labor announces TikTok tax
Apple and Microsoft could also be caught by the policy with their Apple News and LinkedIn products if they meet the $250 million Australian turnover threshold.
- Ronald Mizen and Amelia McGuire
Tech giants to be punished if they don’t pay for news
The big stick approach set to be announced on Thursday would force recalcitrant platforms to the negotiating table or risk being hit with penalties.
- Ronald Mizen
Perpetual v ATO: $2.2b deal hangs in the balance
Though the tax office is risking $170 million-odd in the bag, it’s evidently seeking to set a precedent for future demergers.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
November
Mortgage brokers back NSW payroll tax inquiry
A NSW parliamentary committee will examine retrospective application of payroll tax laws widened by courts which has angered companies using contractors.
- James Eyers
The fastest-growing firms have one thing in common: AI
BlueRock’s Peter Lalor says the firm is using generative AI across the firm, while McGrathNicol’s Jason Preston is using the machine learning to identify patterns that humans would overlook.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
Tax Office tells CFOs to question their lawyers and accountants
Businesses should learn from the PwC tax scandal by testing the tax advice of accountants and lawyers to avoid being shamed in public, the ATO says.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- Opinion
An OECD global tax deal is close. Australia should jump on board
It wasn’t a good look for Australia to be on the world stage at last month’s IMF meetings as a noted holdout on a crucial international agreement.
- Richard Holden
The Australian companies paying the most – and least – tax
Miners paid more corporate tax than all other sectors of the economy combined in 2022-23, according to new data from the Australian Taxation Office.
- Tom McIlroy
Chris Ellison-style tax deals in the public interest: ATO
The Tax Office says secret legal settlements like its controversial deal with Mineral Resources founder Chris Ellison are subject to strict independent oversight.
- Tom McIlroy
October
Trade wars, market jolts: What a Trump win means for Australia
The tax and economic policies of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will have profound effects for Australian investors, exporters and US subsidiaries.
- Matthew Cranston and Trudy Harris
Chris Ellison’s offshore secret
An investigation by AFR Weekend has uncovered how Mineral Resources chief executive Chris Ellison, one of Australia’s richest men, allegedly evaded tax for years.
- Neil Chenoweth
Government targets social media users who promote tax dodge schemes
Experts are being asked to weigh in as Canberra looks to deal with social media users encouraging others to take part in tax avoidance plans, as part of its response to the PwC tax leaks scandal.
- Edmund Tadros
Chartered Accountants demands changes to revised tax agent rules
The accounting body fears that proposed laws to rein in rogue tax agents would erode “the relationship between a taxpayer and their agent”.
- Edmund Tadros
September
China stimulus should stabilise iron ore price, says resources minister
Resources Minister Madeleine King says China’s latest stimulus package was unlikely to push prices higher, but it should help arrest the one-third fall seen since the start of 2024.
- Ronald Mizen
Luxury cars among Plutus Payroll tax fraud spoils up for grabs
A Porsche Cayenne GTS, a Porsche 911 GT3 and two Wolf GB08 Tornado racing cars are among 30 vehicles confiscated from instigators of the fraud that will be auctioned off.
- Ronald Mizen
- Exclusive
- Social media
Tech giants in firing line to pay for swath of new online laws
The Albanese government is introducing new laws to curb the harms caused by social media giants, and is also looking at how to make them pay for it.
- Ronald Mizen
Deal struck on laws to rein in rogue tax agents
The government and accounting industry have agreed to new wording for laws to rein in rogue tax agents to quell industry fears they would have to disclose mental health information to clients.
- Edmund Tadros
You can compete with better wages and conditions, Albanese to tell miners
The prime minister will take a veiled swipe at the nation’s top mining executives in an address to the minerals industry at Parliament House on Monday.
- Ronald Mizen
Labor shift over crackdown on tax agents
The new stance was announced after a meeting between Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones and a coalition of 10 professional associations.
- Edmund Tadros