Tech giant Google has revealed how much tax it paid to the federal government last year amid suspicions multinationals have employed aggressive tax minimisation strategies in Australia.
The Australian Tax Office last month launched an audit into Apple, Google and Microsoft after concerns were raised about possible profit shifting and tax dodging by the three big technology companies.
On Friday, Google Australia said it paid almost $12 million in corporate tax to the Australian government in 2014.
The Silicon Valley based multinational said in a statement that it paid $11.7 million in tax on revenue of $438.7 million and profits of $58.7 million in 2014.
It said it received a research and development tax offset of $4.9 million.
Google said its accounts for the year to December 2014 had been lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
"We've invested nearly $1 billion in Australia over the last three years, employing a local workforce of 1200 people," a Google Australia spokesman said.
In addition to the ATO crackdown, Australia and the UK recently vowed to clamp down on profit-shifting by multinational companies like Google.
At April's G20 meeting in Washington, Treasurer Joe Hockey and British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne agreed to set up a working group to tackle tax avoidance by big global companies.
Google Australia said it backed a simpler and more transparent international tax system.
"That is why we support global coordination in forums such as the OECD," Google Australia's spokesman said on Friday.
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