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Apple Australia Under Audit As Part Of $7bn ATO Crackdown

The Australian Tax Office is probing the global tax giant.
Apple Australia is reportedly in the sights of the ATO.
David Gray / Reuters
Apple Australia is reportedly in the sights of the ATO.

Apple Australia has reportedly confirmed it is one of the 50 global companies currently being audited by the Australian Taxation Office.

The global tech giant is said to be among seven unnamed multinational concerns set to pay up to a total $2 billion as the ATO concludes long-term audits into tax avoidance.

According to NewsCorp Australia, the ATO will not "name and shame" companies under examination, but tax officials have reportedly been auditing about 50 multinational corporations as part of the wide-ranging audit.

NewsCorp reports that the ATO is also reviewing hundreds of other companies for compliance with the general tax law and the multinational anti-avoidance law.

The ATO reportedly expects to claw back the $2 billion by the end of the financial year from the seven multinationals that operate "in the energy and resources and e-commerce sectors".

The revelations come after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this week pledged to get tough on multinational tax avoidance by imposing a 40 per cent penalty on profits earned in Australia and shifted offshore from July 1.

Labor has made a crackdown on big companies dodging tax a priority and the effort was a key pillar of its 2017 election campaign.

The ATO has been pursuing some of world's largest tech companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google, for the past five years.

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