Tax Commissioners from the Asia Pacific will establish a regional taskforce to share compliance tactics, increase tax transparency and help countries to tackle base erosion and profit shifting. This is the outcome of the 44th meeting of the Study Group on Asian Tax Administration and Research (SGATAR) held in Sydney from 24 to 27 November 2014, which…
A group of institutional asset owners and managers have jointly called for comprehensive transparency and disclosure to be adopted as core principles in reform of the international taxation system to be put before the G20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane on 12-14 November 2014. The group, including the £150bn UK Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF), Quebec fund…
In their G20 Leaders’ Communiqué at the end of the G20 Brisbane Summit on 15-16 November 2014, the G20 Leaders welcomed the progress on the G20/OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan and committed to finalising this work in 2015, including transparency of taxpayer-specific rulings found to constitute harmful tax practices. The Leaders also: Welcomed…
The OECD has released its new Strategy for Deepening Developing Country Engagement in the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, which seeks to strengthen their involvement in the decision-making processes and bring them to the heart of the technical work. The BEPS Project aims to create a coherent set of international tax rules to…
The Prime Minister on Mon 17.11.2014, announced the completion of negotiations for a China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. With a view to maximising the benefits of the FTA for business, Australia and China have also agreed to review their bilateral taxation arrangements, including relief from double taxation. Key outcomes under the China-Australia FTA include: More than…
ASIC has updated its Regulatory Guide RG 49 (Employee incentive schemes) and issued 2 new class orders to facilitate the range of financial products that can be offered under employee incentive schemes (previously referred to as employee share schemes). To this end, ASIC has replaced Class Order [CO 03/184] with 2 separate class orders –…
The OECD has released 2 new discussion drafts of the BEPS Action Plan on: Action 7 – Prevent the Artificial Avoidance of PE Status. Action 10 – Proposed Modifications to Chapter VII of the Transfer Pricing Guidelines Relating to Low Value-Adding Intra-Group Services. The Action 7 draft includes the preliminary results of the work carried…
The Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No 3) Regulation 2014 was registered on Mon 17.11.2014. It amends the Taxation Administration Regulations 1976 to allow for the sharing of taxation information between the ATO and other agencies for the purposes of investigations being carried out by the Trusts Taskforce and the Phoenix Taskforce. In…
The Private Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No 1) 2014 has now passed all stages without amendment after being passed by the Senate on Tue 18.11.2014. It effectively awaits Royal Assent. The Bill implements a 2014 Budget announcement to pause the income thresholds which determine the tiers for the Medicare levy surcharge and the Australian Government…
The Customs Amendment (Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2014 and Customs Tariff Amendment (Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2014 were both passed by the House of Reps on Tue 25.11.2014 without amendment and now move to the Senate. The first Bill proposes to amend the Customs Act 1901 to implement Australia’s obligations under…