It was the one little line in a corporate presentation from asbestos exile James Hardie that revealed a lot.
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"Income taxes are not currently paid or payable in Europe (excluding Ireland) or Australia due to tax losses. Australian tax losses primarily result from deductions relating to contributions to AICF," the group said, using the acronym for its Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund.
The company pays 35 per cent of operating cash flow every year into the fund. These contributions are tax deductible.
It is one reason why critics say James Hardie has paid no tax in Australia in more than a decade.
"James Hardie over the last decade paid an average of $0 in corporate tax in Australia and had an average ETR [effective tax rate] of 0 per cent on average annual profits of $204 million," said a 2014 report by the Tax Justice Network and United Voice.
"If James Hardie had paid tax at the statutory rate, it would have generated an average $61 million in annual tax revenues," said the report.
The company has argued that it is a special case due to the fact that most of its business is in the US, while most of its investors are in Australia. This has led to a complex structure which includes operations in many tax havens, like Bermuda.
The question is whether James Hardie will be able to trim this back now that US President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to slash the US company tax rate to 15 per cent.
Brave Scot
With great power comes great responsibility.
And as the most prized Scot in all the land, BHP boss Andrew Mackenzie found himself among the guests at the Scots Annual Dinner on Saturday night at Melbourne's Westin Plaza.
Haggis was feasted upon, whiskey may have also been imbibed – and Mackenzie may have been given a good warm-up for his 60th birthday, which falls in the week leading up to Christmas.
Ashes to Ashley
Turnover is obviously a good thing for a labour hire and training firm – unless all the action is being generated from its boardroom and CEO's office.
Ross Shrimpton's Ashley Services Group has great form on this front, but the labour hire and training group is not resting on its laurels. Interim chief executive/chief financial officer Paul Brittain tendered his resignation on Friday and will be out the door in February.
There was no word on how the search is going for a permanent CEO to replace Stewart Cummins, who stepped down in September – effective immediately – after just seven months in the role.
When he joined Ashley – just months after failing to rescue Vocation from collapse – Cummins was keen to emphasise the differences between the two businesses.
"It is a safer business model," he told Fairfax Media of Ashley. "They don't use brokers, they don't use third parties."
The fact that former Labor luminary Simon Crean had already jumped ship before Cummins' arrival might have served as a warning.
The latest departure would probably have sent the stock plunging to a fresh lows – if it had not been suspended from trading earlier this month at a record low of 13¢.
Luckily Ashley had some other news to help distract investors from the news of Brittain's departure.
The NSW government's education and training division has terminated the contracts of two of the group's Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) as of this Wednesday November 30, following its assessment that "contract events of default occurred".
It also said that further communications with the Victorian Department of Education and Training regarding the audit of another training subsidiary has failed to resolve the "outstanding matters".
"As a result of the above matters, the board has resolved to engage a third party to undertake a strategic review of the company."
It will be interesting to see what Shrimpton makes of the review.
The entire group is now worth a fraction of the $41.6 million in cash that Shrimpton got when he sold some shares in the float two years ago.
"I still want to be in the business for another eight or 10 years, but part of it was about age and selling at the right time," he told Fairfax Media before the IPO hit the market in 2014.
Got a tip? ckruger@fairfaxmedia.com.au