
1982
Act
FOI Office
under
Taxation
Released
Australian

1982
Act
FOI Office
under
Taxation
Released
Australian

1982
Act
FOI Office
under
Taxation
Released
Australian
Presentation to OECD: Australian Budget 2015-16 —
Multinational integrity measures
• The Australian Government has announced a package of measures in its 2015-16 Budget to
combat multinational tax avoidance.
• The package includes:
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–
three new domestic measures;
(1)
A new Multinational Anti-avoidance Law: which strengthens Australia’s General
Anti-Avoidance Rules. The rest of this presentation wil be focused on the MAAL.;
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(2)
Increased Penalties: for tax avoidance schemes and transfer pricing adjustments,
the maximum administrative penalties will be doubled for large corporates (from
50% to 100% of the tax benefit obtained).
(3)
Application of GST to imported digital goods and services: to ensure that supplies
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of digital products and services supplied to Australian consumers by foreign entities
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receive the same GST treatment as equivalent supplies made by Australian entities.
These amendments are broadly modelled on similar rules currently in operation in
the European Union and Norway and draws on the work being undertaken by
Working Party 9.
(a) Products and services covered include streaming or downloading of movies,
music, apps, games, e-books as well as
other services such as consultancy and
professional services
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– action on
four of the BEPS action items that were delivered last year;
(1)
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CbC: Australia will require large companies to provide a CbC, master file and local
file from 2016, consistent with the OECD’s implementation guidance.
(2)
Treaty Abuse: Australia will adopt the OECD’s recommendations into our treaty
negotiation policy. They will provide Australia’s starting point for future treaty
negotiations.
(3)
Hybrid Mismatches: the Board of Tax wil consult on how to implement the OECD’s
recommendations in the Australian context, reporting by March 2016.
(4)
Harmful Tax Practices: the ATO has already started exchanging rulings on
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preferential regimes.
– an announcement of
three further processes.
Australian
(1)
Consultation on further measures to address profit shifting: The Government has
announced a consultation process focused on schemes where transfer pricing is the
main issue. The recently announced diverted profits working group established with
the UK wil feed into this consultation process.
(2)
Development of a public tax transparency code with business: The Government has
asked the Board of Tax to lead the development of a voluntary public tax
transparency code for large corporates.
(a) Australia already has laws that mandate public disclosure by large companies of
their turnover, taxable income and tax paid. But we think a voluntary code for
greater disclosure will help build confidence in the majority of Australian
companies that do the right thing. A voluntary code will provide a framework
for corporates to take the lead, to become more transparent and help educate
the public about their compliance with Australia’s tax laws.
(3)
Signing of MCAA for CRS: Australia has committed to sign the OECD’s Multilateral
Competent Authority Agreement for the implementation of the common reporting
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standard.
Act
FOI Office
under
Taxation
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Australian