Corporations Point-in-Time Service Updates

The Corporations Service has been updated to include the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Amendment Act 2024 (Cth) (Act No 17 of 2024) and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Making Multinationals Pay Their Fair Share—Integrity and Transparency) Act 2024 (Cth) (Act No 23 of 2024).

Act 17 of 2024

The amendments made by this Act, together with those contained in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Foreign Investment) Act 2024 (Cth), seek to encourage investment which will boost Australia’s housing stock, while strengthening the integrity of Australia’s foreign investment rules.

Schedule 1 to this Act amends the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Act 2015 (Cth) to increase the fee cap, the maximum fee that can be imposed by the Regulations, to $7,000,000. 

Schedule 2 to this Act amends the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Regulations 2020 (Cth) to triple foreign investment application fees for the purchase of established dwellings and double the vacancy fees for all foreign-owned dwellings purchased on or after 7.30 pm on 9 May 2017.

Act 23 of 2024

Schedule 1 to the Act introduces new rules on the disclosure of information about subsidiaries. For financial years commencing on or after 1 July 2023, Australian public companies (listed and unlisted) must disclose information about subsidiaries in their annual financial reports.

Schedule 2 to the Act limits the amount of debt deductions multinational entities can claim in an income year. The new thin capitalisation rules seek to align with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s earnings-based best practice model which allows an entity to deduct net interest expense up to a benchmark earnings ratio.

These amendments have been updated in the Point-in-Time Corporations Service current to 19 April 2024. (NB: subscription required).

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