But The Australian Financial Review has learned that the BCA directly surveyed the chief executives of its 130-plus members about a company tax cut this year, in the wake of the company tax rate cut in the United States.

The chief executives were asked which of four options they would nominate as their preferred response to the company tax cut in Australia.

These were: returning funds to shareholders; more investment; increasing the wages of their existing workforce; or increasing employment.

More than 80 per cent nominated one of the first two options while only 16 per cent to 17 per cent nominated higher wages or employment.

Loading

The survey results are understood to have been tightly held but were reported on internally in a memo entitled "the good news and the bad news".

A spokesman for the BCA confirmed the survey to the Financial Review on Monday but downplayed its significance.

Survey never completed – BCA


"We never completed the survey", the spokesman said.

The BCA began the survey in January, after the US passed legislation to slash its company tax rate 21 per cent.

Fewer than one in five of Australia's most powerful chief executives say they will use the Turnbull government's proposed company tax cut to directly increase wages or employment. Alex Ellinghausen

The spokesman said the process was stopped because, "unsurprisingly for that time of year, the response rate was considered too low", and it didn't include major employers.

Instead, the BCA sought on the record responses from its biggest employer companies.

"As a result many CEOs in the last three months have made public statements about what they would do with the tax cut," the spokesman said.

"What's on the public record is what matters and those commitments are on it."

More than 80 per cent of CEOs in a BCA survey said they would use proceeds of a tax cut to boost returns to shareholders or to invest in the firm - rather than increasing wages or adding jobs. Janie Barrett


With the government still hopeful of passing the legislation this week, the political debate has moved to the next phase which will be a pre-election stoush over the tax cuts, which Labor will promise to repeal if it wins power.

The CEOs who signed the letter will be asked to back their investment claims after Labor established a Senate committee in anticipation of the legislation passing the Parliament this week.

"If the Senate passes this important legislation we, as some of the nation's largest employers, commit to invest more in Australia which will lead to employing more Australians and therefore stronger wage growth as the tax cut takes effect," the CEOs said.

The committee will probe the companies' wage growth and employment estimates, ask them to detail how much tax they have paid in the past five years and to explain any expected benefits if the cuts are enacted.

With the government still hopeful of passing the legislation this week, the political debate has moved to the next phase which will be a pre-election stoush over the tax cuts. Jessica Shapiro

The signatories included BHP, EnergyAustralia, Fortescue Metals, JBS Australia, MYOB, Origin Energy, Qantas, Wesfarmers and Woodside.