RELEASE: Australian parliament PASSES LANDMARK BILL TO ENSURE CORPORATE TAX TRANSPARENCY

December 2, 2024

Victory in Australia builds momentum for U.S. policy designed to end corporate tax havens, ensure wealthy corporations pay their fair share in state taxes.

Washington, D.C.– Tax justice advocates, including U.S.-based nonprofit State Revenue Alliance, were thrilled to see the Australian Parliament passed a corporate tax transparency bill on Thanksgiving Day which offers a critical new tool in the effort to ensure a fair accounting of the profits made by some of the world’s most profitable corporations. Once implemented, any company earning more than 10 million Australian dollars in revenue must disclose their profits and taxes, number of employees and other key financial data in a long list of tax haven jurisdictions. 

State Revenue Alliance has kept a close watch on the public country-by-country reporting (pCbCR) bill in Australia and sees its passage as an opportunity for tax justice champions in the United States to pursue similar efforts at the state level.

State Revenue Alliance’s Executive Director Amber Wallin said, “We congratulate our friends in Australia for passing a strong corporate tax transparency bill which ensures accountability through reform to the country’s corporate tax reporting system. Some of the most profitable corporations around the globe have taken advantage of weak or nonexistent reporting laws to conceal their profits and avoid taxes. But that’s about to change as state-based tax justice advocates educate the public and policymakers in coming weeks about the need for corporations to simply pay what they owe in taxes.

“In Australia, we witnessed what happens when tax justice champions stand up to corporate special interests who’ve for too long operated in the shadows. Worldwide combined reporting is a critical part of the tax justice efforts already underway in a number of states. We are thankful to the advocates and the Australian Parliament for this major victory for international tax justice, aptly passed on Thanksgiving Day. Now, it’s back to work here in the U.S. to continue the momentum.”

Several other organizations have offered comments on the victory in Australia.

Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy Senior Fellow Matt Gardner said,"Part of the reason why companies are offshoring profits is that they've been able to do so under a veil of secrecy, but part of it is also that a loophole in state corporate tax laws makes this offshoring a huge tax dodge. But state lawmakers have an off-the-shelf tax policy solution that can take away this maneuver: worldwide combined reporting."

Erica Freeman, Deputy Director of Communications at the Pennsylvania Policy Center said, “Whenever advocates for tax justice in Pennsylvania call for corporate transparency and world-wide combined reporting we are met with opposition from wealthy corporations and their paid advocates who claim that “international competition” requires us to keep taxes on corporations low in our state. This bold step forward by Australia, combined with other actions around the world,  show us that we in Pennsylvania and the United States are now behind in a worldwide effort to stop multi-national corporations from taking advantage of tax havens to avoid paying their share for the infrastructure, educated workers and other government services on which they rely. We will build on what Australia has done.”

“Australia's new tax transparency law will illuminate the scale of global tax abuse, which costs state governments in the United States billions in revenue each year,” said Don Griswold, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “This new insight into global tax abuse could accelerate efforts to shut down state corporate income tax avoidance in Minnesota, Maryland, Vermont and other states, where legislators are calling for adoption of Worldwide Combined Reporting to prevent companies from shifting their taxable profits to offshore tax havens. Hard-working people are getting fed up with corporate tax loopholes and believe it’s time for wealthy conglomerates to pay their fair share.”

Jason Ward, Principal Analyst for the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research said, “It’s been a long fight against corporate lobbyists to win tax transparency in Australia. The country level data now required in Australia will shine a bright light, for people all across the world, on the abuse of tax havens by the world’s largest multinational corporations. This exposure will give momentum to U.S. state reform efforts to tax profits shifted offshore, end this large-scale corporate theft and adequately fund the public services we all rely upon.”

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State Revenue Alliance and c4 affiliate, the Alliance Action Fund, provides a network of state-based community, labor, and policy advocates from across the country with the strategic resources they need to build intersectional, people-powered campaigns that transform revenue policy – ensuring states fully fund communities and that corporations and the ultra-rich pay what they owe.