Liberals tried to block damning tax data publication: Labor
LABOR'S assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh has described the release of the company tax data of some of the nation's highest-earning businesses as the sort of information the Liberal Party never wanted the public to see.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released a list showing that nearly 600 of the largest companies operating in Australia paid no tax in the 2013-14 financial year.
More than 1,500 companies with annual incomes of more than $100 million are on the list. The data was released under legislation passed by the previous Labor government.
"The Liberal Party voted against the tax transparency laws when Labor announced them in 2013 and then when they got into office they tried every excuse to wind them back including suggesting that this would lead to kidnap risk," Mr Leigh said.
"[That] explanation [was] described by a particular tax expert as the stupidest excuse for non-disclosure he'd ever heard.
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