The Abbott government is considering changing tax disclosure laws after complaints by private business owners that they could be kidnapped and held at ransom when people realise how wealthy they are from their published tax information.

Under the existing tax transparency laws – which passed under the former Labor government but that Coalition ministers including Treasurer Joe Hockey voted against – Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan would from July begin publishing the tax details of about 1600 public and private companies with $100 million or more annual turnover.

Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan: Transparency laws, whereby the tax details of about 1600 companies would be published by the Commissioner, may be changed due to fears of kidnappings. Credit:Bohdan Warchomij

This would include tax information on private companies controlled by billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart, and could also expose other wealthy individuals who do not appear on rich lists such as the BRW Rich 200.

The laws, which would see Australian companies' taxable income, total income and tax paid for the 2013-14 financial year published publicly, have been opposed by some privacy groups that say protection of individual privacy is paramount and would be eroded if the information gets published