New tax avoidance laws have forced 44 multinational companies to return $7bn each year in sales to Australia, the tax office says.

Tax authorities have also confirmed they are considering applying a punitive 40% tax, known as the Google tax, against a “handful” of multinationals for diverting profits offshore.

The Australian taxation office (ATO) used Senate estimates on Friday to reveal the latest results of its ongoing tax avoidance crackdown, including through the 2016 multinational anti-avoidance law and 2017 diverted profits tax.

The multinational anti-avoidance law is designed to stop multinationals from avoiding Australian tax by selling in Australia but billing it to an offshore entity, located, for example, in Ireland.

ATO deputy commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn said the new law had forced 44 multinationals to restructure their operations to bill from Australia and recognise they have a taxable presence here.

“That has brought about $7bn of sales per annum onshore, so billed by the Australian company, instead of being billed from Ireland, say, or somewhere else, with the consequential increases to tax,” Hirschhorn said.

“That is leading to significant increases in income tax and also in conjunction with some of the GST measures, some significant increases in GST collections.”

Hirschhorn also confirmed the ATO was also considering applying the diverted profits tax, a tax penalty of 40% to address tax avoidance, to a “handful” of companies with global income of $1bn or more.

The tax was introduced in mid-2017, designed to stop multinationals from shifting profits offshore using complex internal structures, in a bid to avoid Australian tax.

“I would say that we have a handful of companies, I’ll just say a handful of companies, where the application of the diverted profits tax is in contemplation,” Hirschhorn said.

The scale of multinational tax avoidance has been revealed by two global exposés, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its partners, including the Guardian.

The Paradise Papers, a vast trove of leaked documents from law offshore law firm Appleby, revealed how companies and individuals were avoiding tax on a significant scale tax using artificial structures.

The documents revealed the internal structures used by companies such as Apple, Nike and coal giant Glencore.

The leak, like the Panama Papers leak before it, put renewed focus on the way the world’s biggest companies were paying tax.

Last year, it was revealed Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft had paid an extra $380m in tax following the introduction of the new avoidance laws, up 160% on the year prior.