The Assistant Treasurer: Senator Arthur Sinodinos on Sun 29.9.2013, announced the Government would not proceed with the 1 October 2013 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 was released in June 2013 proposing a start date of 1 October 2013 (instead of 1 July 2013 as announced in the Budget).
Senator Sinodinos said the deferral of the start date was “necessary in order to give business the certainty that it needs to comply with the tax laws”. He said “consultation on this measure has indicated that the reforms as announced could affect commercial transactions that should still be eligible for offshore banking unit treatment”.
The Assistant Treasurer added the Coalition Government “will ensure that an announcement on the content of the measure is made in a timely way, including a potential commencement date, so that business can make any necessary adjustments” and that the Government “will take the time necessary to properly consider all the issues, including the views of business”.
Source: Assistant Treasurer’s media release #1, 2013, 29 September 2013
[LTN 189, 30/9/12]