Rio Tinto on Mon 17.3.2014, published its latest “Taxes paid report”, the 4th year it has published this report, which details the US$7.5 billion of taxes the company paid around the world in 2013. The company said it also paid USid=”mce_marker”.9 billion of taxes on behalf of its employees. The voluntary annual report details all…
A draft report by the Productivity Commission on public infrastructure was released on Thur 13.3.2014. It found an abundance of flaws, mythologies and forgone opportunities in infrastructure financing, funding and procurement. The draft outlines a proposed process for improving infrastructure investment across all levels of government; and as a consequence attracting increased private investment. Peter…
The Farm Household Support Bill 2014 and the Farm Household Support (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2014 were introduced in the House of Reps on Thur 6.3.2014. The Farm Household Support Bill provides the mechanism to implement a new Farm Household Allowance (FHA), an income support payment for farmers and their partners who are in…
The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Unexplained Wealth and Other Measures) Bill 2014 was introduced in the House of Reps this Wed 5.3.2014. It contains measures to implement recommendations made by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement (the PJC-LE) in its final report on its inquiry into Commonwealth unexplained wealth legislation and arrangements. The inquiry took evidence…
The Government has advised that more than 3.6m pensioners will receive an increase to their payments from 20 March 2014. Minister for Social Services, Kevin Andrews, said single age pensioners will receive an increase of id=”mce_marker”5.70 a fortnight, while age pensioner couples will receive $23.80 extra a fortnight. “This means total pension payments for people on the…
At its meeting Tue 4.3.2014, the Reserve Bank Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 2.5%. Bank Governor Glenn Stevens said monetary policy was “appropriately configured” to foster sustainable growth in demand and inflation outcomes consistent with the target. On present indications, the Board considered the most prudent course “is likely to be…
In July 2013, the OECD published an Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) which identified 15 actions to address concerns about tax planning by multinational enterprises that make use of gaps in the interaction of different tax systems to artificially reduce taxable income or shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions. The OECD has now released…
The OECD is seeking public comments on 2 discussion drafts on Action Item 2 of the BEPS Action Plan. Action 2 calls for the development of model treaty provisions and recommendations for the design of domestic rules to neutralise the effect of hybrid mismatch arrangements. The first discussion draft (Neutralise the effects of Hybrid Mismatch…
The OECD has released a discussion draft document that includes the proposals produced with respect to Action 6 (Prevent Treaty Abuse) of its BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Action Plan. Interested parties have been invited to send comments on this discussion draft, which includes the preliminary results of the work carried out in the…
The OECD was requested by the G8 at its Lough Erne summit “to find ways to address the concerns expressed by developing countries on the quality and availability of the information on comparable transactions that is needed to administer transfer pricing effectively”. The OECD has now released a paper which sets out and briefly discusses…