The International Monetary Fund has praised Australia for its plans to implement a tax on the extraction of national mineral resources, however it has also stated that the levy needs to be broadened across the mining and resource industry. On September 30th an early draft of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on the Australian economy was made available. The publication showed that the IMF was generally pleased with the Australian Government’s current economic and fiscal direction, however it did raise some ... Read More

The Australian Tax Office intends to expand its anti-tax evasion operations by combing through years of extensive automobile and property purchases records to find evidence of tax evasion. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) will soon send official requests to all of the Australian state governments for extensive historical property and automobile purchase data. The ATO hopes to collect all the available information on property title transfers between July 1st 1999 and June 30th 2010. The ATO will also request data on all ... Read More

The Australian Government has scrapped its controversial proposed Resource Super Profit Tax (RSPT) in favor of a new Mineral Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) and an expanded Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT). Last week the Government of Australia revealed its plans to drop the previously announced RSPT system and instate a new MRRT scheme. The levy will be enacted alongside an expansion of the current PRRT to cover both all onshore and offshore extraction of gas, oil and coal seam methane. Unlike the ... Read More

Concerns have been raised about the privacy issues surrounding information provided to the Australian Tax Office by tippers and whistleblowers concerning tax evasions. Last week the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) released Community Intelligence - Collecting and Processing Tip-offs, a performance audit of the Australian Tax Office’s (ATO) treatment of tax information provided by anonymous tippers on other taxpayers. The report revealed the ATO’s procedure of indefinitely retaining all information provided by tippers, even if an investigation proves the data to be false ... Read More

Philip Daniel, Deputy Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) tax policy devision, has revealed that he supports the Australian Government's intention to instate a new 40 percent tax rate on mining industry profits. On June 23rd Philip Daniel spoke at an Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants conference and gave his view on the country's current dispute over the proposed Resource Super Profit Tax (RSPT). Phillip Donald said that he believed that a recent mining-sector sponsored media campaign had misinterpreted the possible ... Read More

The Australian Government has set out to refine the current system which allows individual taxpayers and businesses to make “elections”, or treatment choices, in their tax returns. On June 16th Nick Sherry, Australian Assistant Treasurer, announced the release of a consultation paper which aims to gather public feedback on possible refinements to the nation’s “election” tax system. In the current form, Australian taxpayers are able to make choices in how their income is determined and reported. There are currently 216 such “elections” in ... Read More

The Australian Government is reminding tax payers of its current offshore income declaration initiative, which offers greatly reduced penalties in exchange for voluntary sharing of information. On June 1st the Government of Australia issued a media release urging tax payers with undeclared offshore incomes to utilize the current Voluntary Disclosure Initiative. Michael D’Ascenzo, Tax Commissioner of Australia, stated that the program will end on June 30th and concessional penalty arrangements will no longer be offered upon the initiative's completion. No indication was given ... Read More