The Government has released for public consultation draft legislation, which aims to introduce tax exemptions and other tax concessions to support the Australian shipping industry. The draft legislation forms part of the Government’s Stronger Shipping for a Stronger Economy reform proposals. The tax proposals include:
- an income tax exemption for ship operators;
- provision for accelerated depreciation of vessels via a cap of 10 years to the effective life of those vessels;
- roll-over relief from income tax on the sale of a vessel;
- an employer refundable tax offset; and
- an exemption from royalty withholding tax for payments made for the lease of shipping vessels.
The legislative amendments are proposed to commence on 1 July 2012.
The draft bills are available on the Treasury website. Further details on the entire package of shipping reforms are available on the Department of Infrastructure and Transport website.
Comments: are due 5 March 2012.
Source: Minister for Infrastructure and Assistant Treasurer’s joint media release No 009, 20 February 2012.
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