Making the invisible visible: Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance releases interim report

Key Points:

The inquiry raises some larger and perhaps more challenging questions about Australia's corporate tax system and what is acceptable and unacceptable tax minimisation.

On 18 August 2015, the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance tabled a long-awaited interim report, with the subtitle "You cannot tax what you cannot see". The eagerly anticipated interim report was leaked to the media prior to its release, with early suggestions that its contents would propose radical changes to address the scourge of corporate tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation.

The tabled interim report, by comparison, makes a number of tamer recommendations with an uncertain future in the current political environment.