By Madleleine Heffernan
German discount supermarket Aldi is still making up its mind on whether to join a tax transparency code which has led to more big businesses, particularly multinationals, releasing information about the tax they pay.
Woolworths recently agreed to sign up to the Voluntary Tax Transparency Code, which targets businesses with turnover of more than $100 million and follows public anger over multinationals engaging in aggressive tax avoidance.
Supermarket players such as Aldi and Costco are feeding strong demand for industrial space in Sydney. Credit: Ben Rushton
The owner of Coles, Wesfarmers, is a signatory and in August urged Aldi to follow its lead. "I would encourage all supermarket operators to do so," Wesfarmers chairman Michael Chaney said at the time. Wesfarmers expects to lodge its first tax contribution report under the code shortly.
The Business Council of Australia has described the code as an "important initiative" and said recently that 42 of its members, and 56 companies in total, have signed up, accounting for $23 billion, or a third, of company tax paid in 2013-14.
Aldi accounts are not publicly available because it is structured as a limited partnership. Credit: AP
But Aldi, which has been criticised for its disclosure and accounting practices, has yet to commit.
In response to questions from Fairfax Media, it repeated its comment from three months ago that it was "still assessing the impact of implementing the Voluntary Tax Transparency Code on its Australian operations." A spokeswoman said Aldi "currently complies with all its statutory tax reporting obligations."
Aldi is one of the country's biggest retailers. When it first set up in Australia it filed accounts to the corporate regulator, ASIC, but it no longer does so.
This is because it is structured, unusually, as a limited partnership. Limited partnerships are registered with the states and territories and are not required to be audited or to disclose accounts to ASIC (if Aldi did, its accounts would be available to the public and competitors).
Wesfarmers chief executive Richard Goyder last year said "someone should go and have a good look at how much tax Aldi pays in this country because I suspect they're very profitable". He also said Aldi should be "paying corporate tax in Australia and they should be very transparent".
Aldi Australasia chief executive Tom Daunt responded in a submission to the Senate inquiry into tax avoidance that Aldi "does not engage in the inappropriate pricing of international related party transactions for the purposes of artificially reducing taxable profits in Australia". He added that Aldi had a "very open and positive working relationship" with the Australian Taxation Office.
The Voluntary Tax Transparency Code was created with the input of business by the Department of Taxation. Other signatories include major banks ANZ, NAB and Commonwealth Bank, the big two miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, property business Mirvac and investment firm AMP.