13 May 2015

Wait-and-see approach on tax crackdown

9:42 am on 13 May 2015

The Government is waiting to see the effect of Australia's crackdown on tax from multinational companies before taking further steps here, Finance Minister Bill English says.

Bill English giving the pre-budget speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce.

Finance Minister Bill English Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

Australia plans to introduce legislation preventing global companies such as Apple and Microsoft from using tax minimisation schemes to avoid paying tax.

Mr English said New Zealand was already tackling the issue of corporate tax as part of an OECD project.

He said the Government was also interested to see how Australia's extension of GST to digital services provided by foreign firms would work.

"A lot of the devil here is in the detail about whether the measures are credible, enforceable and sustainable because this is a long-run game," he said.

"Both the multinational companies and the GST issues will be with us for decades, so we'll get to see."

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