Thread: Maccas strike again

Years ago on one of the lesser visited Thai islands there was still an old Thai coffee shop. We learned a few basic Thai words to help in ordering. They appreciated this very much and showed us around the back how they roadted the coffee. It was a huge metal dish and a wooden paddle to stir the coffee around over a gas burner. The coffee was filtered through a sort of sock and tea was served after to clean the mouth. You coud go to the tourist shops and get a cap or similar for a dollar or so, but the far nicer coffee in this odd little traditional coffe shop was a few cents. I hope it is still there, but I doubt it as at the time a fast boat was being developed for island visits so I am sure by now it is ruined.
Chris

Speaking of Maccas, I see they paid nil tax on $478m in revenues, which means I paid more tax than one of Australia's largest companies. Something wrong there?


ATO says 30 per cent of large private companies pay no corporate tax - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Not necessarily. I suppose there are two basic reasons why any company would pay no tax despite a large income.

The first of these is that it had no taxable income. There are a variety of possible reasons for this, but only some of them raise the spectre of tax avoidance. The usual reason is a large tax write down, which may or may not be completely legitimate, but others include having an abnormally large number of tax deductions. Where these relate to tax payable in an overseas jurisdiction, one would suspect tax avoidance, but it can be very difficult to prove. If a business is expanding, it is quite feasible that they are not actually profitable, despite large and growing sales.

The second reason is that they have previously overpaid their tax for a variety of reasons.


This whole question is rife with misleading figures, including confusion between cash flow or sales and profit.

John

Love to know Maccas franchise fees. Can I have a double Dutch with an Irish slice special. Maybe it should be on the menu

Transfer pricing and loans between related entities are used to inflate local liabilities while shifting profits offshore.

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So that's why I work in Png, get paid from Belgium, and have assets in Australia

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Not necessarily. I suppose there are two basic reasons why any company would pay no tax despite a large income.

The first of these is that it had no taxable income. There are a variety of possible reasons for this, but only some of them raise the spectre of tax avoidance. The usual reason is a large tax write down, which may or may not be completely legitimate, but others include having an abnormally large number of tax deductions. Where these relate to tax payable in an overseas jurisdiction, one would suspect tax avoidance, but it can be very difficult to prove. If a business is expanding, it is quite feasible that they are not actually profitable, despite large and growing sales.

The second reason is that they have previously overpaid their tax for a variety of reasons.


This whole question is rife with misleading figures, including confusion between cash flow or sales and profit.

John

All that may be true, but it is often the case in large Multinationals that one of the large tax write-offs is the royalties fee for the use of the Trademark. Of course that is almost always held by a legal entity, in a low-taxing jurisdiction like Ireland, Singapore or the Cayman Islands, that has no assets and no business activity other than receiving royalties for the use of the trademark/tradename.

Apparently eBay Australia is a legal entity in Switzerland.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Speaking of Maccas, I see they paid nil tax on $478m in revenues, which means I paid more tax than one of Australia's largest companies. Something wrong there?


ATO says 30 per cent of large private companies pay no corporate tax - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

All these companies this pay lots of other tax

I haven't check the list but I'm pretty sure the company I work for would be on it.......and we pay a **** load taxes and royalties.