“In this house almost 19,000 – that’s right, 19,000 – corporations claimed to be headquartered”, he said.
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This makes superannuation reform both a political and policy victor for Prime Minister Turnbull, who can use it to simultaneously wash off the Abbottalyptic stain of “unfairness” that tainted the Coalition, achieve a large dividend in Budget fix, and also outflank Labor.
He claimed it was not right for a prime minister to have investments registered in such a place, whether they were legal or not.
“In order to avoid conflicts of interest nearly all of my financial investments are in overseas managed funds which means that I have no say in which companies they invest in”, he said.
Mr Turnbull was responding on Wednesday to an allegation by Labor senator Sam Dastyari that he invested in companies dodging tax in the Cayman Islands.
Senator Dastyari told the Senate about a Cayman Islands house, “an impressive five-story homestead, nestled among the palm trees, with the waves lapping on the beach”.
He said in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama referred to Ugland House as either “the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world”.
The two funds are based in the Cayman Islands, which Australia’s tax commissioner Chris Jordan has described as the sort of tax haven he and his officers want to clamp down on.
Sam Dastyari said the investments were “legal and disclosed” but questioned whether they were appropriate.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen asked in parliament whether it remained the government’s position that the Cayman Islands was a tax haven.
“Thousands of managed funds with investors outside of the US are registered in the Cayman Islands with the result that the income of the fund is taxed in the hands of the investors in their own home jurisdictions”.
“Every time the Liberal Party votes against tax transparency, remember there is house in the Cayman Islands – a house where Malcolm’s money resides”, he said.
“It actually increases the tax that is paid in Australia”.
Bill Shorten asked Mr Turnbull in parliament yesterday to support a Labor proposal to raise $14bn in extra taxes over the next decade by scaling back the tax breaks – an idea Mr Abbott had rejected just months ago.
“The fact is that all of my and my wife’s income from managed funds is taxed in Australia, and all of that income is taxed here in full”.
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The Labor party member told the Senate that Turnbull made a few changes in his Register of Member’s Interests in January 2015 and included investments in Zebedee Growth Fund, which needs investors from other nations to invest in it with a minimum of US$1 million.
