Glencore fights two Australia tax bills, faces audit

MELBOURNE, May 13 (Reuters) - Glencore Plc (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) is contesting two Australian tax bills on which it has already paid A$42 million ($33 million) and is being audited by the Australian tax office, the miner and commodities trading giant told a Senate panel.

In response to a separate question at the panel, Switzerland-based Glencore said it booked a loss of US$1.356 billion on revenue of US$12.8 billion in Australia in 2014 and paid A$77 million in Australian company tax for that year.

The previous year it paid A$100 million in company tax on a profit of US$441 million, based on revenue of US$14.5 billion.

Glencore disclosed the figures in written responses sent on Tuesday to a Senate inquiry on corporate tax avoidance, after being hauled in front of the panel last month along with rivals BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) and Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) and tech giants Google (Xetra: A0B7FY - news) , Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT - news) and Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) .

"We are working with the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) to resolve the matters in dispute," Glencore said.

The senate probe and Australia's tax office have focused on whether companies that have set up operations in low-tax locations like Singapore are shifting profits to avoid paying taxes in Australia.

BHP, Rio Tinto and Glencore have all said their operations in Singapore were designed to put them closer to customers, traders and shippers, not to avoid tax.

"The choice to be based in Singapore is to have more intimacy with our customers. And that intimacy drives higher volumes and higher prices and benefits our shareholders and benefits Australia," BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

Glencore revealed it had booked $8.96 billion worth of sales in 2014 and $10.65 billion in 2013 to related parties in several countries, from Argentina to Zambia, including 12 related party units based in Singapore.

BHP earlier disclosed that it is contesting A$522 million in Australian tax bills on its Singapore marketing operations up to 2010, after having paid almost no tax in Singapore since 2006.

($1 = 1.2555 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Ed Davies)