Top tech companies on ATO radar for back taxes

Included in this list are Apple, Google, Microsoft, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Crown, Chevron and Singtel Optus, all of whom have been named either in Senate inquiries or in ASX statements as being audited by the ATO.

The ATO is said to be confident about winning its case against Chevron which is ongoing. The oil giant lost a profit-shifting case in the Federal Court, a verdict that it has appealed.

Fairfax Media also reported that Microsoft, McDonald's and IBM were three of the prominent multinational firms that had not yet signed up to the federal government's tax transparency measures which call for voluntary disclosure of tax affairs.

{loadposition sam08}The Tax Transparency Code was introduced by former treasurer Joe Hockey in the 2015 federal budget.

According to the code, firms which have turnover between $100 million and $500 million have to supply only general tax details. Those with turnover more than $500 million will have to provide more details.

Hockey said at the time that the idea was for "companies, particularly large multinationals operating in Australia, to publicly disclose their tax affairs".

Among other big companies that have been asked to cough up back taxes, Rio Tinto has been told to pay $379 million and interest of $68 million for the calendar years 2010 to 2013.

The Fairfax reports said historically the ATO had settled with companies and ended up with about half of what was sought; in 2015, for example, the tax office was targeting a figure of $5.7 billion and ended up getting almost $3 billion.,

It said that if companies did not sign up to the voluntary reporting regime, then mandatory disclosure may be imposed.

Fairfax said the Board of Tax chairman Michael Andrew had indicated that European companies were generally more compliant when it came to the code. This was because there were similar measures in their home countries, designed to create more transparency about their tax affairs.