Reports this week have shown the scale of tax avoidance perpetrated by some major companies, bringing about a Federal Government pledge to do something.

Fairfax Media outlet the Australian Financial Review (AFR) has reported that tech giant Apple has shifted about $8.9 billion overseas to avoid paying tax.

AFR’s report says Apple paid a paltry $193 million, or 0.7 per cent of its $26.7 billion turnover, to the Australian Tax Office over eleven years to 2013.

The paper says it got the figures from financial accounts filed by Apple with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The report says Apple moved the money through Singapore and into the coffers of the mysterious Apple Sales International – a company in Ireland which appears to be the stopping point for Apple’s tax-free funds.

Apple has made no official comment on the allegations, which the AFR has also levelled against Microsoft and Google, though it does not have any official numbers on other companies.

The story has caused MPs from every side of politics to speak out against the use of tax havens to avoid big bills in Australia.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says the practice takes money directly from Australian workers, hospitals and schools.

“If this is the case then it means that billions of dollars of taxes that could've been used for our hospitals, for our schools, for essential services have effectively been siphoned off-shore as a result of what appears to be perfectly legal arrangements under current laws,” Mr Xenophon said.

“If that's the case, those laws need to be changed.”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says Australia and other G20 nations are trying to find ways to pin down profits.

“Businesses operating around the world are not necessarily paying their fair share of tax where they're earning their profits,” he said.

“Our view is, and that is a view that's shared around the world, businesses should pay their fair share of tax where they earn profits.”

Trade Minister Andrew Robb agrees.

“In most cases the companies are doing what is legal, but is it fair?” Mr Robb asked.

“Is it what they should do as companies that are benefiting greatly from the Australian commerce?

“We've got to look in a global sense at how to tackle this problem, that's why it's on at the G20,” he said.

Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said; “The Australian tax system needs to be fair, and that means everybody paying their fair share.”

Mr Bowen blamed Treasurer Joe Hockey for allowing the practice to proceed.

“We had initiatives in Government, which Mr Hockey has unwound, to deal with this,” he said.

“He's reversed them at a cost of $700 million, and that is a very backwards step.”