Rupert Murdoch‘s Australian operations pocketed an Aus$882 million (US$800 million) tax rebate from the new conservative government, reports said Monday, blowing a major hole in the country‘s budget.
The massive payout to News Corp. — one of the largest ever made by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) — related to complex shuffling of assets through local and overseas businesses in 1989 that netted the company a Aus$2 billion tax deduction, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Other major spending included an Aus$8.8 billion cash injection to the central bank and Aus$1.2 billion for a government‘s military-led crackdown on people-smugglers.
Murdoch‘s News Corp is the dominant media player in his native Australia, controlling 70 percent of capital city newspaper circulation. The firm also has significant online and television assets.
So they launch an investigation into wages, another with the unions. They launch an investigation into the ABC just as Murdoch gets $882 million.
It is pretty clear who the Prime Minister is and who the patsy is.
Now who is going to pay for this? We will, the every day Australian is about to get ■■■■■■.
and tbh, it's not like the government (of either persasion) "gave" them the money. they are undertaking tax minimisation and were successful in the process. hell, i don't like it but good luck to them...
and tbh, it's not like the government (of either persasion) "gave" them the money. they are undertaking tax minimisation and were successful in the process. hell, i don't like it but good luck to them...
They kinda did.
Was a late 80s bunch of paper shuffling (4 guys from 4 "subsidiaries" literally in one room, with a $2B cheque, "buying" and "selling" various parts of the News empire off each other at profits/write-offs).
Then someone from News shoved all the documentation in a bottom drawer, for a rainy day.
I believe if Rupe hadn't pulled out of Aus then the debt never gets called in.
The law, and I won't pretend to understand it exactly, should not allow that ■■■■ to happen.
$900M of Aus taxpayer money to just be sent off-shore.
Mind you it's been 5-6? Gov'ts since then, all more or less equally responsible. I read a 2011 article about it, so some AFR guy was onto it back then.
And the fact they've already successfully buried it shows another thing that's wrong, one American guy from an American company controlling 70% of the newspaper circulation. Far too centralised.
I just laugh that it has gone off on Abbott's watch.