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Australia’s new thin capitalisation rules significantly impact businesses with foreign ownership or offshore operations. If your business has debt deductions (such as interest deductions and borrowing costs) of more than A$2m, tax deductions could be denied under the primary ‘earnings tests’ (particularly if your EBITDA is low or negative due to early-stage losses, especially common in sectors like infrastructure and technology). To manage the above risk, the legislation offers an alternative test: the Third Party Debt Test (TPDT).

On 24 September 2025, the ATO released PCG 2025/3 (‘the PCG’), setting out its compliance approach to arrangements where capital is raised to fund franked distributions. This was after their consultation on the draft PCG.

The ATO raised concerns about franked dividends funded by capital raising, leading to Taxpayer Alert (TA 2015/2) and legislation. On December 4, 2024, the ATO issued draft PCG 2024/D4 to clarify its compliance approach.

The ATO oversees tax structures for foreign PE investments in Australia. If FIRB approval is required, ATO and FIRB will review the structure. Due to strict anti-avoidance laws, investors should seek early tax advice to comply.

On 22 June 2023, the Federal Government introduced the Treasury Laws Amendment (Making Multinationals Pay Their Fair Share – Integrity and Transparency) Bill 2023 into the House of Representatives. This Bill has been referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee with its Report due 31 August 2023.

Improvements are needed for Government changes to Thin Capitalisation regime’s Exposure Draft (ED) legislation which will apply mainly to multinationals with high interest deductions for income years commencing on or after 1 July 2023. Grant Thornton have identified a number of areas of interest in submissions to Government which reflect our analysis and include the views of our affected clients and their bankers and lawyers.

On 16 March 2023 the Federal Government released its Exposure Draft (ED) legislation, which was first announced as part of its October 2022 Federal Budget Thin Capitalisation measures.

On 16 March 2023 the Federal Government released its Exposure Draft (ED) legislation giving effect to its October 2022 Federal Budget thin capitalisation measures, which will apply mainly to multinationals with high interest deductions for income years commencing on or after 1 July 2023.

The guide outlines how you can ensure that market valuations for tax purposes are properly undertaken

While Australia has shown strong acquirer appetite and businesses from all industries are finding great success and outstanding returns with their acquisition and divestment strategies, M&A activity now faces an uncertain future.

When it comes to M&A transactions, businesses can often be eligible for GST refunds – but how do you determine if this is the case, and how much is recoverable? In our latest Tax in M&A series, we look at a threshold test that can be applied to transactions whereby businesses only make limited financial supplies. But there is a limit to how much GST can be claimed back when the Financial Acquisitions Threshold (‘FAT’) has been exceeded.

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.