Tax Justice Aotearoa and the Better Taxes campaign have published research that shows the largest multi-national tech companies - like Facebook, Amazon, Google and Microsoft (owned by some of the richest men on the planet, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos) are making billions of dollars in NZ, but are paying very little tax by deploying tax minimisation pratices.

Read the report.

These tech giants are using our services and infrastructure, but they’re not paying to maintain them. And NZ is missing out on much needed tax revenue to the tune of $100s millions, revenue that could pay for over 10,000 extra elective surgeries each year, build 1,400 social housing units, or reverse the government's $130 million cut to the school lunch programme.

Based on this research The Better Taxes Campaign and Tax Justice Aotearoa recommends the government:

• Direct Inland Revenue to dedicate existing resources, and provide additional resources, to investigate the tax practices of these large corporations and enforce existing applicable legislation.
• Review existing legislation to ensure statutory obligations to pay withholding taxes on royalties cannot be avoided through the mischaracterisation of payments.
• Increase transparency, including through public country-by-country reporting and amending the Companies Act to require all subsidiaries of overseas headquartered companies to file accounts publicly.

It is a no-brainer for the government to pursue these big corporations for the tax they owe, to generate more revenue to fund our hospitals, pay our teachers, build the infrastructure we need, and respond to the challenges of climate change, poverty and inequality. We shouldn’t be letting billionaire tech giants off the hook.

But this is just a start. We want all corporates to pay their fair share.

Want to take action to support the campaign? Sign the Tax Corporate Profits petition