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Transfer Pricing

Transfer Pricing

This work uses logos and typographical elements from corporations that engage in Transfer Pricing. Transfer Pricing is when multinational corporations make paper financial transaction between different arms of their business with the express purpose of cheating countries out of their rightful tax income. The great Australian "heroes" Rio Tinto and BHP engage in an aggressive form of Transfer Pricing whereby their Australian arm of the company sells iron ore mined in Australia at well below market value to its’ own "marketing” arm based in Singapore, where they have negotiated their own super low tax rate. The Singapore "marketing" arm then sells the iron ore to China at market value ensuring the profit is recorded in and taxed in Singapore without the iron ore ever having been there. Making sure their Australian operation records a very small taxable profit and effectively cheating Australia out of its rightful tax dollars. This is partly how Chevron paid $248 in tax on an estimated $1.73 billion profit.

This definately not my biggest work but is one of my favourites. This was a self initiated mural, I dont think i would of been able to produce this artwork as a commissioned work especially with corporate sponsors and government departments asserting curatorial control over our art form. I think the influence of corporate and government "curation" has reduced a great majority street art, graffiti art and mural art to what can most kindly be described as shallow, unchallenging, pretty pictures and regurgitated inspirational quotes. So far from where our artform started. I am certainly not suggesting what i do is profound or that any other approach is not without merit, I am just commenting on what i see as the total dumbing down of our artform. If i see another Realist portrait of some anonymous "Pretty Girl" i think i might shoot myself.

There is a huge amount of information available about this practice online unfortunately Australia's mainstream medial dominated by Newscorpse very rarely cover this topic. Below are just a few links from the conversation an apolytical news website based on applying academic standards of proof to news articles

theconversation.com
theconversation.com/au/topics/tax-avoidance