The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has announced the publishing of Public and Multinational Business Disputes and Settlements Findings on 11 November 2024.

This report offers valuable insights and key findings regarding disputes and settlements involving public and multinational businesses for 2023–24. This report broadens the scope reported last year (which focused solely on settlements for 2022–23) to include information on disputes and expand on the information in the ATO annual report.

In September 2024, ATO  published its first four Public Groups findings reports, providing transparency to taxpayers on large market risks, their programmes of work, and engagement with large public and multinational companies.

Each report had a separate focus and dataset, with information identified through the programmes of work and risk analysis conducted in each area. ATO published its last findings report for 2024: Public and multinational business disputes and settlements findings.

Summary of findings

ATO observed increasing levels of tax compliance by public and multinational businesses. An additional AUD 2.2 billion was paid voluntarily as a result of ATO preventative compliance intervention.

ATO also continues to see a consistent number of audits each year:

• During the year, 24 matters were escalated and endorsed for audit. These matters are ongoing.
• Throughout the year, ATO issued amended income tax assessments to 24 taxpayers that raised around AUD 2.5 billion in liabilities. Separately, total liabilities for GST raised were approximately AUD 363 million.
• ATO continues to apply penalties in the appropriate cases. During the year we raised liabilities for penalties of approximately AUD 177 million.
• Global profit shifting risks continue to be a major focus in our audit programme. Global profit shifting arrangements are often complicated, both legally and factually. They typically involve related parties located in low or no tax jurisdictions around the world.
• ATO continues to investigate arrangements where tax avoidance is a concern, and in appropriate cases, the anti-avoidance rules may be applied in preference to, or as an alternative, to the transfer pricing provisions.

Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Saint said, “Public and multinational businesses play an important and integral role in the functioning of Australia’s corporate tax system. To ensure the community has confidence that large businesses are paying their fair share of tax, in addition to our assurance programs, we maintain a robust audit programme to address risks and arrangements of concern. This report shares our observations from that program of work, and how we manage the pipeline of disputes.”

“Our audit and compliance programs are primarily funded through the Tax Avoidance Taskforce. For 2023–24, we raised AUD 2.76 billion in income tax liabilities, and AUD 363 million of GST liabilities. In addition, a further AUD 2.2 billion was paid voluntarily as a result of our previous compliance interventions and resolved disputes. Since the Taskforce commenced in June 2016, we have raised AUD 22.8 billion in liabilities from public and multinational businesses,” said Saint.

The observations ATO made through their disputes and resolutions programmes provides key insights into how we interact with large taxpayers, and their obligations and risk arrangements.

“We encourage taxpayers to engage with us early and seek advice for complex transactions. As each of the findings reports demonstrate, early engagement leads to higher positive outcomes for taxpayers,” added Saint.