3rd Dec 2015, 7:25 PM – Senate Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015 - in Committee - Tax information of companies earning over $200m

The majority voted for this amendent, which was introduced by Greens Senator Richard Di Natale, which means it was successful.

What was the amendment?

The amendment introduced new provisions that mean that Australian companies with a total annual income of $200 million or more will have to report certain tax information so it becomes public. That information includes the company's ABN, its total annual income, its taxable income and its tax payable.

The Labor Party opposed this amendment and said the threshold should be $100 million.

Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi rebelled against his colleagues (which is known as crossing the floor) and voted against this amendment because he believed it went against a policy his party room had previously agreed on.

What made this amendment controversial?

Even though the Greens Party earlier agreed with the Labor Party that the threshold should be $100 million, they made an agreement with the Coalition Government to support a higher $200 million threshold. They did this because they thought it was better than nothing. Read ABC News for more information.

The Labor Party were not pleased.

What does the bill do?

The bill strengthens the laws against tax avoidance for certain companies. For example, it introduces anti-avoidance measures to deal with multinational companies with an annual global income of more than $A1 billion that use schemes to avoid having to pay tax in Australia or at least reduce that tax to a minimum.

To learn more about the bill, see the bills digest.