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Australian manufacturers have been through difficult times, particularly with the shutdown of the automotive industry, but remaining businesses are proving to be agile and resilient having already battled through lots of challenges. In addition, the accelerating pace of new technologies being introduced, combined with COVID-19 disruption and the Government’s substantial industry support, many manufacturing business models have been fundamentally challenged for the better.

With rising supply chain costs and disruptions on a global scale as a result of the pandemic, Australia has been a prime example of resilience by increasing reliance on domestic products to minimise shortages. Although we’ve increased the supply of Australian products, some organisations struggle to compete with global sellers. As supply chains slowly ease back into a pre-pandemic rhythm and import capabilities open back up to their full potential, to compete on a global scale more efficiently, this creates an opportunity to consider where trade policies via tariffs and quotas could be applied to even out the playing field.

The Australian Labor Party (Labor) today announced that, if elected, it will seek to introduce measures to "close tax loopholes exploited by multinational companies".

A foreign real estate buyer has been penalised $250,000 by the ATO after purchasing Australian residential properties without being authorised by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB). It was found that in addition to owning two established properties that were also in breach, the investor had purchased a further four unauthorised properties.

We have now been through numerous Top 1,000 ATO Taxpayer Reviews and are yet to hear a business state that the process is exactly as they envisaged, or less onerous than anticipated.

The ATO has recently released findings from its Next 5,000 reviews to date. The program is conducted by the ATO via its Streamlined Assurance Reviews (“SAR”). This framework generally involves a review of the group’s tax returns for the two most recent years lodged, and is focused on entities within the group with significant activities or transactions.

In the March 2022 Federal Budget, the Government announced two support measures for small businesses (turnover under $50m) in the form of a 20 per cent uplift of the amount deductible for expenditure incurred on external training courses and digital technology

There have been pressure systems gathering momentum along two fronts. Whilst they have largely gone unnoticed by many in the industry, collisions between the two have occurred and left some casualties in the M&A space. Previously, it was regarded by many deal-makers that employer obligations were quite low in risk. However, multiple enforcement agencies are focusing on unpaid employee entitlements and contract hire labour. The uptick in compliance activity has coincided with growth in the M&A space, leading many to believe there are huge levels of unquantified risk in the market – often not covered by warranty and indemnity insurance.

The choice between a share sale and an asset sale involves many different considerations – including commercial, legal and tax. It is important to remember that stamp duty obligations can also be quite different depending on what type of transaction is chosen. Here we explore some of the instances when stamp duty can impact tax obligations and add to the cost of M&A significantly.

On April 2, 2022, Australia and India signed the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, a significant step towards strengthening economic ties between the two countries. Valued at $12.6b, the agreement is expected to eliminate tariffs on more than 85% of Australian Goods Exported to India.

Income Tax Assessment Amendment (Digital Games Tax Offset) Bill 2021: Measure for Consultation

In the past few years, we’ve seen increased focus from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) encouraging organisations to be transparent, demonstrate good corporate governance and have strong tax risk management frameworks in place. The ATO is now focusing on the tax governance of high-net-wealth privately owned groups – as part of their Top 500 and Next 5,000 programs.