Income Tax Point-in-Time Service Updates

Thursday 13 September 2018 @ 3.14 p.m.

The Income Tax Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the Legislation Amendment (Sunsetting Review and Other Measures) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 78 of 2018), the Treasury Laws Amendment (Illicit Tobacco Offences) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 82 of 2018), the Treasury Laws Amendment (OECD Multilateral Instrument) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 83 of 2018), the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Integrity and Other Measures No. 2) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 84 of 2018), the Migration and Other Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Integrity) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 90 of 2018), the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan Base Rate Entities) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 94 of 2018) and the Corporations Amendment (Asia Region Funds Passport) Regulations 2018 (Cth).

Act 78 of 2018

This Act makes amendments to various Acts, including the Legislation Act 2003 and the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, to implement those recommendations of the Report on the Operation of the Sunsetting Provisions in the Legislation Act 2003 that require legislative action.
This Act also makes other minor and technical amendments to the Legislation Act and the Acts Interpretation Act to clarify their operation and resolve inconsistencies between provisions.

Act 82 of 2018

The amendments made by the Act:

  • create a new tobacco offence regime that provides a comprehensive set of offences that can be applied to illicit tobacco that has been domestically manufactured or produced, or for which the origin of production or manufacturing is unknown or uncertain;
  • create new offences for possession of equipment for producing or manufacturing illicit tobacco;
  • set penalties at a level to deter illegal activity;
  • confirm that illicit tobacco for which the origin of production or manufacturing is unknown or uncertain can be seized and forfeited; and
  • define tobacco to align the meaning for excise and excise-equivalent customs duty purposes so that the amount of duty on dutiable products is determined in a consistent manner.

Act 83 of 2018

This Act contains amendments to the Tax Agreements Act to give force of law in Australia to the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (Multilateral Convention).

The Multilateral Convention is a multilateral tax treaty that enables jurisdictions to quickly modify their bilateral tax agreements to give effect to internationally agreed tax integrity rules and improve dispute resolution mechanisms.

Act 84 of 2018

Part 1 of Schedule 1 to this Act amends the ITAA 1997 to implement part of the OECD hybrid mismatch rules by preventing entities that are liable to income tax in Australia from being able to avoid income taxation, or obtain a double non-taxation benefit, by exploiting differences between the tax treatment of entities and instruments across different countries.

Part 2 of Schedule 1 to this Act amends the ITAA 1936 to implement part of the OECD hybrid mismatch rules by limiting the scope of the exemption for foreign branch income and preventing a deduction from arising for payments made by an Australian branch of a foreign bank to its head office in some circumstances.

Schedule 2 to this Act amends the ITAA 1997 to implement part of the OECD hybrid mismatch rules by denying imputation benefits on franked distributions made by an Australian corporate tax entity if all or part of the distribution gives rise to a foreign income tax deduction; and preventing certain foreign equity distributions received, directly or indirectly, by an Australian corporate tax entity from being non assessable non-exempt income if all or part of the distribution gives rise to a foreign income tax deduction.

Schedule 3 to this Act amends the ITAA 1997 to ensure that the producer offset is better targeted at supporting the Australian film industry when an offshore location is used for principal photography.

Schedule 4 to this Act amends the ITAA 1997 and the ITAA 1936 to provide an income tax exemption for the IBC and to exempt from withholding tax payments of interest, dividend and royalties made to the IBC. This provides support to the International Cricket Council staging the ICC World Twenty20 in Australia in 2020.

Schedule 5 to this Act amends the ITAA 1997 to list Melbourne Korean War Memorial Committee Incorporated as a DGR under the income tax law.

Act 90 of 2018

The Migration and Other Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Integrity) Act 2018 (the Act) amends the Migration Act 1958 (Migration Act), the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (the Income Tax Assessment Act) and the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (the Taxation Administration Act) to support the integrity of the temporary and permanent employer sponsored skilled visa programmes.

Specifically, the Act:

  • amends the Migration Act to authorise the public disclosure of sponsor sanction details;
  • amends the Migration Act to ensure that there is certainty around merit review rights for certain skilled visas, and that the legislation achieves the Government’s policy intention;
  • amends the Income Tax Assessment Act, the Taxation Administration Act and the Migration Act to enable the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (the Department) to collect, record, store and use tax file numbers for prescribed purposes in relation to prescribed visas; and
  • amends the Migration Act to address incorrect references to the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014 (the Regulatory Powers Act).

Act 94 of 2018

This Act amends the Income Tax Rates Act 1986 to ensure that a corporate tax entity will not qualify for the lower corporate tax rate if more than 80 per cent of its assessable income is income of a passive nature.

Corporations Amendment (Asia Region Funds Passport) Regulations 2018

These regulations make amendments to the Corporations Regulations 2001 and other miscellaneous regulations which are needed to implement the Asia Region Funds Passport in Australia. This includes amendments to update the particulars that are included on ASIC’s registers and ensure that the disclosure requirements for foreign passport funds products are the same as those that currently apply to managed investment products.

The amendments made by these Acts and the Regulation have been updated in the Point-in-Time Income Tax Service current to 12 September 2018. (NB: subscription required).

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