SYDNEY: National Australia Bank (NAB) flagged higher expenses for the second time in four months yesterday, citing higher personnel and leave costs.
NAB, Australia’s biggest business lender, bumped up its cost forecast for 2022 to between 3% and 4% from 2% to 3%.
That excludes the impact of its US$882mil (RM3.93bil) buyout of Citigroup’s local consumer business, which became effective on June 1.
Part of the cost jump comes from expected provisions of between A$60mil (RM186.6mil) and A$100mil (RM311mil) related to a previously disclosed agreement with Australia’s financial crime regulator to fix shortcomings in anti-money laundering compliance.
Cash profit at NAB did, however, come in 6% higher at A$1.8bil (RM5.6bil) for the quarter ended June 30, compared with A$1.7bil (RM5.3bil) a year ago, as it benefited from an increase in home and business lending, and growth is deposits.
The figure was in-line with Morgan Stanley’s estimate of A$1.8bil (RM5.6bil).
“As the economy changes, continued low unemployment and healthy household and business balance sheets are helping mitigate the impacts of higher inflation and interest rates,” said chief executive officer Ross McEwan.
While higher rates, soaring cost of living, and weak consumer sentiment have effectuated a reversal in home prices from record levels reached last year, McEwan said 70% of customer home loan repayments were ahead of schedule.
Runaway inflation has prompted the Reserve Bank of Australia to tighten monetary policy this year, aiding margins of banks that grappled with record-low interest rates for the past two years.
“Overall, we would view this third quarter update as very much in line with consensus with few surprises,” UBS analysts said in a note.
“The commentary on net interest margin is maybe a bit disappointing in the context of some banks which have already reported, but the underlying margin trend is as expected.”
Excluding its markets and treasury business and the impact of the Citi acquisition, NAB’s net interest margin for the April-June quarter was slightly higher than the first half’s quarterly average due to higher interest rates, partly offset by stiff competition in home lending.
The country’s biggest lender, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, will release annual results today. — Reuters
the CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) share price has been on a decent run over the last couple of months.
Since the middle of June, the biotherapeutics company’s shares have risen to a sizeable 14%.
This compares to a gain of approximately 6% for the benchmark ASX 200 index.
Why is the CSL share price on a roll?
Investors have been bidding the CSL share price higher due to the release of very positive industry data.
That data shows that plasma collection levels are now back to pre-COVID levels in the United States at long last.
This is a big positive for CSL as plasma is a key ingredient in many of its most lucrative therapies. When it was in short supply, the company was paying more than normal for donations, which was putting pressure on its margins. With supply now back to normal and collection prices reducing, CSL should soon start to see its margins improve again.
All in all, the general consensus is that CSL is now over the worst of its issues, and it is onwards and upwards from here. But will it be onwards and upwards for the CSL share price?
Where are its shares heading?
According to a note out of Goldman Sachs, its analysts believe CSL’s shares may be close to peaking for the time being.
This morning the broker has summarized coverage on the company with a neutral rating and $307.00 price target. This implies potential upside of just 5% from the current CSL share price of $292.35.
Goldman believes that the company’s shares are about fair value now based on multiple historic earnings. It explained:
Valuation of 34x NTM P/E has now recovered to the 5yr avg, and is back above the 10yr (29x). We believe risk-reward is once again well-balanced, and reinstate our rating at Neutral, with a 12-month TP of A$307.
Longo says ASIC has been working closely with the government on new regulations, including the issue of unregulated financial advice provided online, which has become a popular source of information for new investors.
Of those surveyed, 41 per cent said they received their investing information from social media platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, TikTok and YouTube. ASIC recently cracked down on social media ‘finfluencers’ who had been providing unregulated financial advice through such channels, a move some warned could see useful money tips unnecessarily removed from the web.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies proved popular with investors during the pandemic.Credit:Bloomberg
ASIC’s head of markets Calissa Aldridge said unregulated online financial advice would continue to be a point of focus for the market watchdog, but acknowledged the rise of social media advice was helping younger investors get a footing.
“We need to recognize that access to a broad range of channels and information has actually been, on the whole, helpful for investors. We’ve had lots of new entrants who have been able to quickly upskill and delve more deeply or more broadly into a range of products,” she said.
Angel Zhong, an associate professor of finance at RMIT, said the survey’s findings of investors’ heavy reliance on finfluencers and limited knowledge of consumer protections justified ASIC’s crackdown earlier this year.
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“However, as this survey was conducted last year, the effectiveness of the crackdown on finfluencers remains to be seen. Some finfluencers did do a good job in improving financial literacy in an engaging way,” she said.
“The absence of finfluencers, limited knowledge of inexperienced investors and lack of good information sources for investment may have an adverse impact on retail investors’ financial and mental wellbeing, especially during recent market crashes.”
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Eslake is the latest in a string of economists including former Treasury official Steven Hamilton and the Grattan Institute’s Brendan Coates to criticize the RBA’s interest rate settings over recent years. Those criticisms have fed into a review of the RBA ordered last month by Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
Eslake said the RBA had made two significant mistakes: putting a date on how long it would keep interest rates at record lows, and assuming inflation would only rise due to faster wages growth.
He said the bank had, through its quantitative easing program, created another looming problem that would flow directly to the federal budget bottom line.
The bank may end up passing on $10 billion in interest to commercial banks that had money sitting with it, while all the government bonds bought by the RBA have very low interest on them.
The gap between what it had to pay commercial banks and the interest it earned on its own debt holdings meant the RBA’s ability to pay dividends to the federal government might be “wiped out”.
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Over the past five years, the RBA has paid $9.5 billion in dividends to the federal government, including $2.6 billion in 2020-21 despite making a loss of $4.3 billion.
Eslake said the lack of dividends would be just one of the problems for the government as it sought to repair the budget, which is carrying almost $900 billion in gross debt, noting tax reform would have to be considered.
“Much of the ‘budget repair’ task will need to be accomplished from the revenue side – ideally through tax reform, not via ‘bracket creep’,” he said.
There may be some respite for home buyers, with figures out of the United States showing inflation in the world’s largest economy was flat in July. Annual inflation fell to 8.5 per cent from 9.1 per cent.
Oxford Economics chief US financial economist Kathy Bostjancic said the Federal Reserve might downsize its expected interest rate increases over coming months if inflation pressures continue to ease.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.
This story features NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED, and other companies. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: NAB
World Overnight
SPI Overnight
6892.00
– 39.00
– 0.56%
S&P ASX 200
7029.80
+ 9.20
0.13%
S&P500
4122.47
– 17.59
– 0.42%
Nasdaq Comp
12493.93
– 150.53
– 1.19%
DJIA
32774.41
– 58.13
– 0.18%
S&P500 VIX
21.77
+ 0.48
2.25%
US 10-year yield
2.80
+ 0.03
1.16%
USD Index
106.30
– 0.09
– 0.08%
FTSE100
7488.15
+ 5.78
0.08%
DAX30
13534.97
– 152.72
– 1.12%
By Greg Peel
One More Sleep
A choppy session in a tight range for the ASX200 yesterday ended with the third session in a row of little net movement, ahead of tonight’s US CPI. Not that there weren’t some definitive sector moves.
The banks fell -0.8% after a quarterly update from National Bank ((NAB)) disappointed. NAB blamed the erosion of higher rate benefits in the period due to competition, and higher expenses required to address regulatory concerns about suspected breaches of anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism financing laws undermining earnings. NAB shares fell -2.9%.
Had it not been for NAB it would have been a more positive session. Aside from a small fall in staples (-0.2%) and some give-back in utilities (-0.8%), every other sector closed in the green.
This time it was not about resources, given energy and materials each rose only 0.1%.
The standout was communication services (+1.8%) and it had little to do with Telstra, rather a 6.7% jump for REA Group ((REA)) on its earnings result, 5.9% for major REA stakeholder News Corp ((NWS)) , 9.0% for rival Domain Group ((DHG)) and 2.6% for Domain stakeholder Nine Entertainment ((NEC)).
But let us not get carried away. REA’s growth reflected the boom in housing over the period ahead of the beginning of the downturn as the RBA released the rate hike dogs. REA does not expect a repeat performance this half.
Communication services was also increased by a 10.0% pop for Megaport ((MP1)) on result.
Consumer discretionary surprisingly rose 1.4% despite the Westpac consumer confidence index falling to 81.2 this month from 83.8 in July (100-neutral). Confidence is now down -23% since November.
(Apologies that this release was slotted in for today on our calendar. The Westpac survey is ALWAYS on the Wednesday following the NAB business survey on the Tuesday, but for some reason wasn’t this month.)
Conditions have improved for Australian business, with the NAB survey for July showing a 6 point increase from June in conditions to +20 (zero-neutral) along with a 5 point increase in confidence to +7. The drivers have been identified as strong demand and a very tight labor market.
Strength in REA’s numbers appeared to flow over to the real estate sector (+1.2%), while technology ignored the Nasdaq and rose 1.7%.
The S&P500 fell -0.4% last night but our futures are showing down -0.6%, or -39 points this morning, despite some strong gains in base metal prices.
Recent history suggests that seemingly oversized moves in the futures reflect hedging of a big order set to hit the physical market in the morning. T’would be a bold move ahead of tonight’s CPI, or maybe it’s a square-up for safety’s sake.
Inflation Consternation
It is widely assumed tonight’s US headline CPI will come in lower than June’s 9.1%, confirming a peak in inflation may have been seen, given falls in oil prices, various commodity prices (from copper to lumber) and freight costs. But Wall Street may not be too happy if that dip is only minimal.
Moreover, it is also expected the core CPI, ex food and energy, could actually tick up, and this is more pertinent for the Fed.
The problem is the biggest component of the index is rent, and rents have continued to rise with US mortgage rates, despite an apparent rollover in the housing market, due to higher mortgage rates. As I have noted before, rents can quickly go up but will not quickly come down unless an economic slump leads to vacancies. With unemployment at historical lows, mass vacancies are unlikely.
Wall Street posted another session last night that was largely stable ahead of the CPI, otherwise impacted by more falls in the chip sector dragging down both the Nasdaq and S&P500.
On Monday night heavyweight sector Nvidia fell -6.3% after warning of lower revenues ahead due to supply chain problems and a fall-off in gaming demand. Last night peer Micron fell -3.7% after echoing Nvidia completely. Nvidia fell another -4%.
While these falls are not massive, problems in the chip business resonate across the wider tech sectors, including the Mega-Techs.
The moves come on the day the president signed the CHIPS Act into law, which green lights subsides and incentives to build chip manufacturing facilities in the US. Like chipmaker Intel, Micron also has plans ready for construction of such a facility, but like Intel, no spade has yet broken the ground. The benefits will be long term.
So looking ahead tonight, the fundamental issue will be whether Wall Street becomes more certain the Fed will go another full 75 points in September, or the 50 hinted at by Jerome Powell. The strong July jobs number has already provided concern.
The US will see another jobs number and another CPI result before then.
commodities
Spot Metals, Minerals & Energy Futures
Gold (oz)
1793.90
+ 4.70
0.26%
Silver (oz)
20.51
– 0.14
– 0.68%
Copper (lbs)
3.58
+ 0.00
0.09%
Aluminum (lb)
1.21
+ 0.01
0.61%
Lead (lbs)
0.99
+ 0.02
2.33%
Nickel (lb)
9.85
+ 0.10
1.01%
Zinc (lbs)
1.69
+ 0.10
6.31%
West Texas Crude
90.50
– 0.26
– 0.29%
Brent Raw
96.40
– 0.32
– 0.33%
Iron Ore
109.28
– 1.67
– 1.51%
Glencore’s warning last week that it would have to cut back production at its zinc smelters due to too-high energy costs is continuing to resonate across the base metal spectrum.
The Aussie is down -0.2% at US$0.6968.
Today
The SPI Overnight closed down -39 points or -0.6%. If it comes to pass that would take the ASX200 back below 7000.
Ahead of tonight’s US numbers, China will report July inflation data today.
Commonwealth Bank ((CBA)) and Mineral Resources ((MIN)) are among those reporting earnings today.
The Australian share market over the past thirty days…
BROKER RECOMMENDATION CHANGES PAST THREE TRADING DAYS
AMC
Amcor
Downgrade to Equal-weight from Overweight
Morgan Stanley
asx
asx
Downgrade to Lighten from Hold
Ord Minnett
IPC
Century Industrial REIT
Upgrade to Outperform from Neutral
Credit Suisse
DHG
Domain HoldingsAustralia
Downgrade to Neutral from Buy
citi
NVA
Evolution Mining
Downgrade to Neutral from Buy
UBS
IPL
Incitec Pivot
Upgrade to Overweight from Equal-weight
Morgan Stanley
LOV
Lovisa Holdings
Downgrade to Neutral from Buy
UBS
OZL
OZ Minerals
Upgrade to Accumulate from Lighten
Ord Minnett
Downgrade to Hold from Add
Morgan’s
RBL
Redbubble
Upgrade to Buy from Neutral
UBS
OER
REA Group
Downgrade to Neutral from Buy
citi
For more detail go to FNArena’s Australian Broker Call Report, which is updated each morning, Mon-Fri.
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FNArena is proud about its track record and past achievements: Ten Years On
The lolly bowl at your family barbecue just got a whole lot sadder because TikTok has helped uncover a devastating truth. It turns out Starburst was quietly discontinued in Australia. I know, I know: lay out your lolly wrappers in loving memory.
Aussie TikToker and bonafide investigative journalist Nariman Dein posted to TikTok earlier this week positing a conspiracy theory that Starburst had been discontinued.
“Can someone tell me where these lollies went?” Dein said.
“I’ve been looking for them everywhere in Australia… Big W, Coles, whatever.
“These lollies don’t exist.”
She then questioned whether the lollies’ existence was a “Mandela effect”.
“I’m having some conspiracy theory like, did they just stop selling them and no one noticed?” she said.
@nariman.dein @starburst i need some answers #comedу #westernsydney #fyp #aussie #aussiethings #woolworths #coles #shopping #conspiracy ♬ Clarinet main lazy atmosphere song(878137) – Yukito Hitoe
And it turns out Dein’s instincts were correct, ‘cos Mars Wrigley — which owns Starburst — has now confirmed the lollies were discontinued Down Under back in June.
The company released a statement in the wake of Dein’s TikTok.
“Our Starburst products are imported from Europe and, like many businesses that are importing products from overseas, the brand has been exposed to supply chain difficulties and rising cost pressures over the last two years,” it said, per ABC.
“After reviewing all the options, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue the brand in Australia from June 2022.”
So if you’re lucky the local newsagents might be hoarding a few dusty bags of Starburst Babies but after that, we’re out of luck.
starburst is discontinued in australia no one talk to me 💔💔💔
Coles actually stopped stocking the delicious sweet treats back in 2018. It seems we’ve been heading on this doomed, chew-less track for a while now. Never again will I taste the sweet, medicinal juices of a cherry chew — the supreme Starburst flavour.
I think we can all agree that Starburst were some of the most elite lollies to find at the bottom of a post-party goodie bag. Of course, the Chews are the classic but I’d argue that Starburst Snakes were up there with some of the best.
The Starburst Sucks lollipop? I’ll mourn you forever. I can’t believe we failed you like this.
As if the situation wasn’t bad enough, another TikToker reckons Lift has been quietly discontinued too. I can’t believe 2022 is the end of all the best childhood treats.
You know what the worst thing is? All this chat about Starburst has made me massively crave some Starburst. Time to go hunting the local IGA for some stale Starburst Snakes. Wish me luck please.
History is dotted with examples of how new technologies have unseated industry leaders, and ASX lithium shares might be next to face- this risk.
the Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd (CVE: GMG) claims its batteries are better than its lithium-ion competitors.
The Brisbane company, which is listed on the TSX Venture exchange in Canada, says its graphene aluminum-ion batteries can charge 70 times faster and are longer lasting, reported the Australian Financial Review.
Graphene vs. lithium batteries
The new batteries are also believed to be kinder to the environment than the lithium-based incumbents, which use rare earths. The mining and processing of rare earths has created controversy due to the amount of pollution generated.
Graphene Manufacturing Group’s founder and managing director Craig Nicol says that his battery is almost net zero. He also pointed out that his battery is less prone to fires compared to the lithium powered ones.
Are ASX lithium shares facing a graphene shock?
ASX lithium shares are market darlings due to surging demand for electric vehicles that are powered by lithium-ion batteries. But sentiment could turn against the sector if graphene aluminum-ion batteries prove to be a better substitute.
So far investors seem unperturbed. the Allkem Ltd (ASX: AKE) share price, Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) share price and IGO Ltd (ASX: IGO) share price are sitting on 20% plus gains each over the past year.
In contrast, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX:XJO) has slumped around 8% into the red. Lithium, nickel and copper are regarded as the metals of the future due to the global electrification trend.
The snubbed $8.3 billion bid for OZ Minerals Limited (ASX: OZL) by BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) will further bolster sentiment towards battery metal miners, like ASX lithium shares.
What’s powering GMG’s batteries
The Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has an informal partnership with Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO). GMG will integrate some of its energy-saving products into Rio Tinto’s operations, while the mining giant will supply GMG with aluminum needed to manufacture the batteries.
GMG developed a way to extract graphene from gas as opposed to the more costly way of extracting it from graphite. The company also has the exclusive license from the University of Queensland for technology used in battery cathodes.
The technology uses nanotechnology to insert aluminum ions inside GMG’s graphene platelets, reported the AFR. This allows GMG to make a denser battery that holds more charge.
Time to sell your ASX lithium shares?
Graphene is a form of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice nanostructure.
While it’s too early to say if this material can displace lithium, which is ubiquitously used in almost all batteries, investors in ASX lithium shares should keep a close eye on this development.
Officers also seized multiple mobile phones, an encrypted desktop computer and a Huawei internet dongle, which they allege was used in the scam.
Salopek, 30, did not apply for bail in Downing Center Local Court on Thursday after he was charged on Wednesday with a string of offenses in connection to the alleged fraud. His co-accused of him, Jay McCrea, 39, remains before the courts.
“Our cybercrime investigators [are] continuing to identify victims and piece together the extent of the fraud,” Marden said. A spokesperson for the AFP said the total losses “are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars”. Investigations are ongoing, and further arrests have not been ruled out.
Cybercrime expert Simon Smith said large-scale SIM boxes were “quite alarming”, in that “it’s very easy to get a temporary throw-away SIM or a hundred” and write a few lines of code to generate a swath of phone numbers for the device to target.
Smith said people were easily tricked by SMS scams because there is no way to differentiate between a legitimate number and one used by a scammer.
His only advice is emphatic: “Don’t bloody click on any links.”
Instead, if people receive a text message about a security issue or any other problem, they should contact the bank or other institution separately.
Smith said people “love convenience”, which is what helps scammers. “It’s so much more convenient later on to not have to go chasing your identity and change all your details.”
The AFP said anyone who believes they may be a victim of a phishing scam, or notice any discrepancies in their bank accounts, should contact the bank and report the issue to the AFP’s Report Cyber website.
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There are 33 islands in Kiribati, a small nation in the central Pacific Ocean. Only 20 of these are inhabited.
Key points:
Residents of several small, relatively poor nations have a large number of Australian bank accounts holding hundreds of millions of dollars
The biggest foreign holdings in Australian financial institutions come from the United States and China
The ATO says there are no more accounts linked to ‘residents’ of uninhabited places such as Antarctica
Yet data released by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and found that $682 million in Australian bank accounts belonged to foreign tax residents apparently from Kiribati, up from just $14 million in 2019.
Fewer than 120,000 people inhabit Kiribati and, according to Kiribati’s 2019-2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), the median household income was just $12,000 in 2020.
The nation’s residents are also quite young: the median age of the population is 23 and 35 per cent of the population is under 15 years old.
But the 876 Australian bank accounts apparently held by Kiribati residents had an average balance of almost $800,000.
Kiribati is not the only remote area where people, companies or trusts that hold Australian bank accounts apparently reside.
Tuvalu, with a population of 11,792 in 2020, had 212 accounts registered to “residents” holding $194 million in Australia.
That is an average of more than $900,000 per account, when the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person in Tuvalu is around $7,500 per person.
Equatorial Guinea, in central Africa, had 52 accounts registered’ to residents holding $4 million.
Individuals, trusts or companies from the eleven notorious secrecy jurisdictions of Bermuda, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Jersey hold $6.3 billion in accounts in Australia. On average each of these accounts holds more than $1 million.
Mark Zirnsak notes ‘red flags’ for money laundering and tax evasion.(Supplied: Uniting Church in Australia)
“The latest data of accounts held in Australia from offshore continue to present red flags for money laundering and tax evasion,” according to the Tax Justice Network’s Mark Zirnsak.
Jurisdictions like ‘Antarctica’ generally reported by mistake, says ATO
The data shows that holdings from uninhabited subantarctic Bouvet Island, Heard Island and McDonald Island have now disappeared, which means there are no Australian bank accounts linked to places with penguins but no people.
The previous year’s data for 2019 showed several million dollars held in uninhabited jurisdictions, such as Antarctica and Bouvet Island.
ATO deputy commissioner Hector Thompson said the information the agency received from Australia’s international exchange partners under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) had assisted in better data matching that allowed them to catch out tax cheats.
The CRS is the single global standard for the collection, reporting and exchange of financial account information on foreign tax residents.
“[It] helps the Tax Avoidance Taskforce to identify, investigate and ensure that foreign-sourced income and assets held in foreign financial accounts by Australian residents are declared,” Mr Thompson said.
The ATO also uses data analytics to detect data anomalies in the CRS data, such as uninhabited jurisdictions.
“Our compliance activities have confirmed jurisdictions such as Antarctica are generally reported by mistake.
“For example, a customer or front-line employee from a financial institution might select Antarctica instead of Australia from a drop-down box when opening an account.”
He said the ATO requires that such mistakes are verified and corrected by the financial institution.
“Data verification steps taken mean that accounts incorrectly reported for Bouvet Island, Heard Island and McDonald Island have been eliminated in the most recent CRS reporting,” he said.
Labor promise to stop money flowing into tax havens
Labor has promised to introduce a “beneficial ownership register” that would make it harder for the people behind companies to hide who they are and what they get up to.
Since the Panama Papers and various other tax leaks there have been calls for governments around the world, including Australia’s, to introduce a register that gives the public free access to the names of people behind companies, trusts, assets and bank accounts.
Mr Zirnsak welcomed Labor’s commitment to a public beneficial ownership register, saying it may help expose who are the people behind companies holding accounts in Australia.
“The government should also strengthen unexplained wealth laws, to be able to seize money shifted into Australia where there is a high likelihood the money has an illicit source,” Mr Zirnsak said.
“The new government should also act on the recommendations made by the recent parliamentary inquiry into money laundering, to reduce the ability of criminals to shift profits from crime into Australia.”
Not all the financial flows are from tax havens
Not all the money flowing into Australian bank accounts was coming from small nations that have few inhabitants.
US resident companies and individuals held $33 billion across more than 588,000 accounts.
Residents of China held $30 billion across more than a million accounts.(ABC News: Steve Wang)
Residents of China held $30 billion across more than a million accounts. And another $15 billion across more than 341,000 accounts was held by people residing in Hong Kong.
Big amounts were also held by residents of the United Kingdom ($14 billion across almost 630,000 accounts), New Zealand ($13.7 billion across almost 511,000 accounts) and Singapore ($13.55 billion across nearly 233,000 accounts).
Overall, the 2020 data released under the common reporting standard (CRS) scheme — the single global standard for the collection, reporting and exchange of financial account information on foreign tax residents — revealed the amount held by foreign tax residents in Australia totaled $186 billion.
Global authorities’ greater exchange of information helps identify tax evaders
The OECD has recently bolstered efforts to track financial flows, with the automated exchange of information on cross-border financial activities.
Data shows that, in 2020, information on more than 75 million financial accounts worldwide covering total assets of around 9 trillion euros was exchanged automatically by 102 jurisdictions.
The data also shows the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters has also helped identify 112 billion euros of additional revenues (including tax, interest and penalties), thanks to voluntary disclosure programs and similar initiatives, as well as offshore investigations.
At least 3 billion euros of these additional tax revenues have been linked directly to the use of the information exchanged.
Mr Thompson said the ATO works closely with other international jurisdictions to catch tax evaders.
“CRS data is exchanged globally using exchange of information agreements with foreign tax authorities,” he said.
“This includes work with the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) and the Joint International Taskforce on Shared Intelligence and Collaboration (JITSIC).”
A Coles supermarket customer has come under fire after criticizing a single mother who attempted to pay for his groceries at the checkout.
Sharing on Facebook, the NSW shopper said he was “embarrassed” by the mum’s gesture and said “I’m dead set over this pay it forward rubbish”.
His controversial “rant” attracted widespread backlash, with hundreds of social media users slamming the “ungrateful” man for his harsh words.
For more Food related news and videos check out Food >>
In his post, the Central Coast shopper urged people who “pay it forward” to “just stop”.
“I’m dead set over this pay it forward rubbish,” he wrote.
“So I was at Coles Woy Woy this morning when a single mum with a pram went to pay for my coffee, milk, banana and frozen chips.
The shopper’s post attracted widespread criticism. Credit: Facebook
“Just stop, I was embarrassed and can afford my own groceries.
“If you want to help, go donate to a charity please stop embarrassing me at the checkout, rant over.”
Hundreds reacted angrily to the man’s post, sparking an intense debate.
“Wow, what a beautiful lady and a lovely gesture. what a shame it was wasted on yourself,” said one.
“She has definitely inspired myself to do something lovey and kind for someone today #keeppayingitforward.”
Another wrote: “I could afford my own fuel too, but one day a lovely old man paid for mine and his.
“And you know what? I was very grateful and paid it forward a few days later. I’m also a single mum and helped someone.”
File image inside a Coles supermarket. Credit: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A third wrote: “I think anyone that does anything nice these days gets a big smile and virtual hug from me – kindness is catching.
“The more you do the better the world gets. So she picked the wrong person that day but next time she might be that person that’s really is in need and very grateful.
One more added: “Sorry you felt embarrassed. How about feeling appreciated?
“Wonder how it was for that lady to get up the courage to offer you the kindness and you slapped her in the face.
“You should feel ashamed. If you felt embarrassed ask yourself why. That’s your problem, not one else’s.”
But some could understand his hesitation.
“You would be bit miffed wouldn’t you … If you were merrily doing your own thing and you realized people thought you were homeless or something,” a Facebook user said.
Backlash
The incident comes weeks after a woman slammed a social media influencer for sharing his “random act of kindness” towards her.
Influencer Harrison Pawluk went viral with a video that showed him giving a bunch of flowers to the woman as she sat in the street.
Maree – whose surname was withheld – told ABC Radio Melbourne she felt “dehumanized” over the stunt which had racked up 97 million views online.
“He interrupted my quiet time, filmed and uploaded a video without my consent, turning it into something it wasn’t, and I feel like he is making quite a lot of money through it,” she told the ABC.
“It’s the patronizing assumption that women, especially older women, will be thrilled by some random stranger giving them flowers.”
