Our latest insights

STAI, a SingTel subsidiary, lost its court appeal, highlighting ATO’s focus on tax avoidance. STAI owes ATO $268m in tax and $125m in penalties due to debt deductions. The court found STAI paid excessive interest, benefiting SingTel.

Grant Thornton Bharat and Grant Thornton Australia hosted a joint webinar on the correlation between transfer pricing and customs for various sectors in the India-Australia business corridor.

PepsiCo appealed a court decision that found it owed the ATO AUD 3.6m in royalty withholding tax for FY 2018 and 2019.

Explore the impact of the latest ATO Draft Taxation Ruling on software and IP payments. Learn how overseas providers and taxpayers may be affected by changes in the ‘royalty’ definition, transfer pricing, and withholding tax rates. Understand the Commissioner's perspectives on royalties, copyright definitions, and tax treaty applications. For personalised guidance on adapting to these changes, connect with the Grant Thornton tax team.

Australia is set to introduce new Thin Capitalisation rules, which may limit a taxpayer’s debt deductions even more than under the current rules.

As part of the recently introduced Treasury Laws Amendment (Making Multinationals Pay Their Fair Share – Integrity and Transparency) Bill 2023 in Australian Parliament, the Federal Government has released an Exposure Draft dealing with Multinational tax transparency.

The ATO has released the revised Draft Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2023/D2, outlining the compliance approach to intangibles arrangements involving international related parties, addressing the tax issues associated with restructures (“migration”) or mischaracterisation of Australian activities in connection with intangible assets.

With less than one week to go until Labor hands down its first Federal Budget, it will be interesting to see what the Government will do to help set up the future of Australia. Our economy – like many others around the world – is still experiencing supply chain pressures, and with a potential global recession looming, there are some steps the Government could take to ensure Australia’s economic strength over the long term.

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.

The ATO has recently undertaken a number of Income tax, Transfer Pricing, GST and R&D reviews of Fintechs across the ‘Top 1000’ and the ‘Medium and Emerging’ markets, focusing on business models such as online lenders, neo banks, buy now pay later providers, and peer-to-peer lenders. Based on the findings, the ATO has identified a number of key risk areas.

Supply chain pressures are not unique to multinational enterprises (MNEs). But when combined with trade protectionism measures, evolving international tax policies, and technological disruption, the current global pandemic has created the perfect storm. The COVID-19 crisis has had an unprecedented impact on international supply chains – from delays in production and logistics, through to loss of confidence in global networks, supply chains have been well and truly tested.

Due to COVID-19 many businesses are considering what broader changes are needed to their corporate structures.