Guardian Australia boss McClelland: We’ll be paying our full share of Australian taxes
McClelland: We should pay tax in Australia
The British-owned Guardian has eschewed the tax-minimisation tactics of US media brands such as Netflix and Google and is running its new Australian operations as a fully taxable local company, its boss has said.
Managing director Ian McClelland was asked about the issue at a press briefing to mark the opening of the Guardian’s new Sydney offices. The Guardian launched in Australia in May 2013. It has now outgrown its original business plan, leading to the move to bigger headquarters in Sydney’s Surry Hills.
Asked about the taxation issue, McClelland said the company, while owned by Guardian Media Group in the UK and ultimately by the not-for-profit Scott Trust, is fully taxed and registered in Australia, and has been from launch.
He said: “Fringe benefit tax, you name it. We’re taxed left, right and centre. We’re not just an outpost of an English company. We are an Australian operation and we should pay tax in Australia.”
Guardian Australia’s Sydney HQ
Netflix, which launched in Australia this week, claims that because its operations are offshore and it employs no local staff it has no need to charge the 10% GST faced by local streaming rivals such as Stan, Presto and Quickflix. As a result, the base price of a Netflix subscription undercuts its rivals by about a dollar. And Google has come under fire for accounting for its local advertising revenue through its Singapore operation.
Wilson: Unsentimental about print
Meanwhile, Guardian Australia editor Emily Wilson, who arrived in the country to take the helm a year ago, defended the number of English journalists in senior roles. She said: “At this early stage, having someone from the mothership is very powerful.”
McClelland, who came to Australia in 2012 said this issue was one for the media industry in Australia as a whole. He said: “The landscape is dominated by English expats. It’s quite annoying. I walk in a media agency and it’s all English accents. Maybe there are too many Brits.”
The briefing came ahead of a screening to media agency and trade media guests of Citizenfour, the Oscar-winning documentary about the Guardian’s Edward Snowden spying revelations.
The Guardian Australia and the ABC revealed in November 2013 that Australia has spied on the Indonesian president. Asked whether the Guardian thought its Sydney offices were bugged by the authorities, Wilson said: “If you’re going to bug a media operation, you’ll probably have us on that list.”
Meanwhile, Wilson ruled out the possibility of The Guardian ever having a print edition in Australia. She said: “It’s wonderful to be free. I really love not being a paper. It’s sentimentality and I don’t have it any more.”
However, McClelland added: “We might do one with a brand as a one-off if it suited their purpose.”
McClelland also decried the strategy of paywalls adopted by rivals such as News Corp and Fairfax Media. He said: “If you’re a general news operation, I think it’s a pretty suicidal business model.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Kudos to them. Hopefully it will engender some support towards the publication. Shame that the companies that can truly afford their real tax bill engage in tax minimisation. Perhaps the govt needs to pitch Google.org as a charitable endeavour, and ask for money to fix the budget.
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Thanks Tim, just confirming that 84% of our editorial staff on Guardian Australia are Aussies, the rest are secondees from the UK sent down to help shape the editorial voice for the Guardian here in Australia.
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Are Australian contributors writing about Australian topics for The Guardian Australia still “technically” commissioned by The Guardian in London – meaning those contributors are not able to charge GST?
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I think that they’ve done pretty well since coming online here. It’s never been more important to have local alternative views readily available. Their readers’ comments system is also easy to contribute to and is often informative.
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The UK has a “Google Tax” coming in from April, why doesn’t Australia follow suit? We’ve heard the chit chat, let’s see some action:
http://m.bbc.com/news/business-31942639
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Mmmmmm: writers for Guardian Australia & Comment is Free Australia are commissioned and paid in Australia, with their pieces edited by Sydney staff. An Australian commissioned and edited by Guardian UK or Guardian America would still be paid in GBP or USD without GST due.
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