The report said Australian companies sent more than A$100 billion (around $77.97 billion) to related parties in the low-tax nation of Singapore and another A$15.6 billion to "hubs" in Switzerland.

This publication was unable to find the Australian Tax Office data cited in the newspaper report; it is in contact with the ATO seeking details. It had not received a reply at the time of going to press.

Such reports highlight how there remains considerable controversy about the use by firms of international financial centres to manage their affairs. In the case of US firms, for example, it is reported that US president Barack Obama wants to impose the same worldwide system of tax on companies that already applies to US persons living abroad.

The Australian Tax Office said it was keeping a watch over "a large number of companies that have undertaken international restructures or have significant cross-border arrangements," the SMH report said. Australia's cross-border trade is $600 billion, and the Tax Office said that more than half of it was transactions between related entities – that is, companies in the same corporate group, it continued.

The submission refers to this shifting of money offshore between related entities as "international related-party dealings" and said in 2012-13 the value totalled $388.4 billion. The next biggest country for related-party flows was the US ($41.3 billion), Japan ($31.5 billion), UK ($23.2 billion) and Switzerland ($15.6 billion). In all cases the amount of money going to hubs offshore has more than doubled from a year earlier, it added.