Hard on the heels of Google Australia ending the regime under which its operations have been outsourced to the Singapore regime, Microsoft Australia has become the first local subsidiary of a technology multinational to sign up to Australia’s new voluntary Tax Transparency Code.

This means it is now committed to publicly revealing its annual profit and the income tax it pays here.

Microsoft’s change of heart was revealed by Business Council of Australia president and Commonwealth Bank chairman Catherine Livingstone at her final BCA meeting late last week.

According to BCA CEO Jennifer Westacott, some 56 companies have now signed up to the regime – though Microsoft appears to be the first by a major multinational operating in Australia.

Its move to embrace the regime comes 18 months after a Senate committee inquiry into corporate tax avoidance was told by a Microsoft executive that $2 billion of software and services revenue generated in Australia in 2013-14 had been booked to Singapore, where the tax rate is 17pc compared with Australia’s 30pc.