"Well-known families and individuals, some of whom may be considered pillars of the community, may well find their reputations publicly tarnished if they are associated with a corporate or family group deemed by the community or activist group as not paying their fair share," it said.

While many of the individuals and families involved will already appear on the BRW Rich List, others have remained below the radar and want to keep it that way.

ATO officials confirmed on Wednesday they were pushing ahead with plans to publish the information, but not until November or December.

AFR Weekend can reveal the government had the support of at least four of the six cross-bench senators it needed to get legislation passed. Bob Day, David Leyonhjelm, Dio Wang and John Madigan indicated they would support the government's exemption.

"Apart from the obvious risks and commercial disadvantages those companies would suffer domestically under these rules, the rules will effectively paint bullseyes on the back of some companies for foreign takeover," Senator Wang said.

Senator Madigan said he agreed large companies should be transparent. "We also need to consider the privacy and security concerns of those who stand behind them. On the face of it, the government's proposed exemption appears to strike the right balance between these competing concerns."

But wealthy entrepreneur Dick Smith said the laws did not go far enough.

He said Australia should be like Norway, where everybody's tax return was published annually.


"In Scandinavia the tax you pay is not secret," he said.

"That's really good. I don't understand why if you're a typical worker for the government then people can find out what tax you pay, but if you're a wealthy person you keep it a secret. You should be proud of it."

The requirement is that the ATO publish the names, ABNs, taxable income and tax payable for 2300 multinationals, public companies and private businesses. Coalition MPs expressed concern that revealing information about private companies would effectively expose the personal wealth of those who own them. This could open them up to kidnapping.

Queensland University of Technology tax expert, Professor Kerrie Sadiq said the kidnap fear was "silly."

"It isn't revealing anybody's personal tax details. It is just information about companies and only big companies that meet certain criteria," she said.