Yahoo Finance Glencore paid no tax on $15 billion income: report
Swiss-based Glencore - Australia’s largest coal miner - has paid almost no tax over the last three years on income of at least $15 billion, Fairfax media has reported.
Fairfax Media conducted an independent analysis of the company’s accounts and found that Glencore claimed tax breaks in Australia after borrowing money from associates overseas.
The report, published in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Glencore borrowed from “associates overseas” at inflated rates of 9 per cent on $3.4 billion in loans – a rate “double what the company would have had to pay had it simply borrowed the money from the bank.”
Glencore is headed by Swiss-based Ivan Glasenberg, who ranks No.5 on the 2014 BRW’s rich list released yesterday. His wealth lifted by $1.01 billion thanks in part due to Glencore’s rising share price.
The company is also one of the beneficiaries of $17.6 billion government subsidies and assistance for the mining industry.
The SMH analysis also suggests that Glencore may be profit-shifting from Australia to other jurisdictions after.
“The study also found a hefty increase in Glencore’s coal sales to related companies (up from 27 per cent to 46 per cent of total sales, with no explanation), indicative of transfer pricing – also known as profit-shifting – and an activity that appears to breach Section IVA of the Income Tax Assessment Act,” says the report.
