The Assistant Treasurer on Thur 30.1.2014, announced that 1 July 2015 will be the start date for the reforms to the Offshore Banking Unit (OBU) regime that were originally announced in the 2013-14 Budget.
As part of the 2013 Federal Budget, the previous Government had announced that it would amend the OBU regime “to better target genuine mobile financial sector activities and address integrity issues with the current regime”. The OBU regime provides a concessional 10% tax rate to encourage genuine offshore banking activity in Australia. A discussion paper released in June 2013 had proposed a start date of 1 October 2013; however, Senator Sinodinos had in September 2013 announced that the Coalition Government will not proceed with that date.
In announcing the 1 July 2015 start date, Senator Sinodinos said this step would “provide business with certainty by allowing targeted integrity rules together with other Offshore Banking Unit reforms, including recommendations by the Johnson Report, such as reviewing the activities eligible for the OBU concession, to be fully considered and implemented in one complete package”.
Source: Assistant Treasurer’s media release, 30 January 2014
[LTN 20, 31/1/14]