The Federal Government has an excellent chance to do itself a favour and also gain some good karma by taking onboard a suggestion by the Treasury to tax big multinational technology companies based on their revenue. It would help the budget bottom line and represent some actual policy for a change.

American multinational technology companies paid $616 million in tax during the last year, a total of $380 million more than the previous year, after new tax-avoidance laws were put in place.

The European Union has given an indication that it is serious about going after big technology companies that avoid paying taxes in states that belong to the union.

Facebook has told a standing committee of the Australian Senate that it booked a vast majority of its Australian income for 2016 outside the country.

Nine European Union countries have supported a move to tax big multinational technology companies on their revenue, and not profits.

The world's richest technology company Apple paid no tax in a decade in New Zealand, despite raking in NZ$4.2 billion in revenue.

Google avoided paying US$3.6 billion in taxes globally in 2015 by shifting US$15.5 billion (€14.9 billion) to a company in Bermuda that is just a shell, according to regulatory filings made in the Netherlands.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook lives in a different world to the one you and I inhabit. Nothing else can account for the fact that he was recently proclaiming that the company he leads should not have to pay corporate tax because he felt the tax rate was not fair.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has attempted to paint the company's decision to set up operations in Ireland as one that was driven by factors other than hard commercial reasons.

Apple is set to face a challenge in its dealings with Ireland, with the European Union's anti-trust regulator to rule soon that the company's tax deals with Dublin are in violation of the EU's rules, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Facebook has warned that it could face a tax bill of between US$3 billion and US$5 billion over the transfer of assets to Ireland.

Facebook and accounting firm Ernst & Young have been accused of providing figures lower by billions of dollars when transferring intangible assets to the social giant's Ireland subsidiary.

Does a multinational company like Apple or Microsoft benefit from doing business in Australia and having a local subsidiary?

The Government may have retreated on its promises to crack down on multinational IT companies avoiding tax, but the Australian Tax Office says it’s on the case.