The Treasury Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2017 and the Diverted Profits Tax Bill 2017 have been referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 20 March 2017. The Bills seek to implement a 40% Diverted Profits Tax (DPT) that would target multinationals that enter into arrangements to divert their Australian profits to offshore related parties in order to avoid paying Australian tax.
The Multinational Avoidance Bill also proposes to increase the administrative penalties that can be applied by the Commissioner to significant global entities, and also amend the ITAA 1997 to update the reference to OECD transfer pricing guidelines in Australia’s transfer pricing rules in Division 815 to include the 2016 OECD BEPS amendments to the guidelines.
[LTN 30, 16/2/17]