Australian Banking Association attacks global tech giants Meta, Google and Apple over tax ‘imbalance’

Australia’s banks have pointed the finger at the world’s biggest tech companies while demanding “a level playing field” to fix what they brand a tax regulation “imbalance”. The Australian Banking Association on Tuesday said the nation’s lenders contributed a record $16 billion in taxes and other levies to government coffers last financial year. They sat only behind the mining sector as the biggest corporate taxpayer in Australia. Chief executive Simon Birmingham said it was a “fair share” but he called out multinational technology companies “such as Apple” that were not subject to the same regulatory scrutiny or paying the same amount of tax in Australia. “It’s Australian banks that have built our payments system and do the heavy lifting when it comes to fighting financial crime,” Mr Birmingham said. “Unfortunately, there is a current regulatory imbalance that is seeing global technology platforms and multinational payments firms deliver bank-like services here in Australia, without bearing proportionate regulatory and fiscal responsibilities. “All we are calling for is a levelling of the playing field. These foreign multinationals need to be captured under the same regulatory umbrella as domestic banks, as well as more scrutiny applied to their local tax contributions.” Australia’s four biggest banks — Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac and ANZ — are currently worth a combined $658 billion. Apple alone is currently valued at $US3.93 trillion ($5.45tr). While Australia’s banks paid $16b in taxes and levies in 2024-25, the ABA’s new report — The Contribution Gap: Tax and regulatory imbalances in the digital age — found Apple, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook owner Meta together paid only $324 million. “Large foreign multinationals generate revenue from Australia’s economy without making comparable contributions,” the report said. “If this gap continues to grow unchecked, funds that benefit the Australian community through public services and superannuation will be impacted, undermining the long-term sustainability of the economy.” A big contributor to the banks’ tax bill came in the form of State and Territory payroll tax, with a combined workforce of just under 180,000 costing them almost $1.2b, according to the report. Meta, Apple and Alphabet employ just 6040 people. The ABA also highlighted the lack of banking regulations covering payment rivals such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, along with buy now, pay later providers such as Afterpay, Zip and Klarna. While conceding more digital options bring choice and innovation, “it also pushed risk beyond domestically regulated businesses”.