TAXATION – GOVERNMENT POLICY – AUSTRALIA

Tax relaxed on share schemes

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Original article by Fleur Anderson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 1-Aug-14

The Australian Government plans to wind back changes to the tax treatment of employee share schemes. The reforms that were introduced in 2009 require members of such schemes to pay their tax liability upfront rather than being able to defer it for up to 10 years. Start-up businesses in particular have been affected by the regime. The Government may replace it with some aspects of the employee share scheme regime that is in place in the UK

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INDUSTRY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF COMMUNICATIONS, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU LIMITED, LOCAL MEASURE, ONLINE MEDIA HOLDINGS PTY LTD, EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Hockey’s budget hole heading to $41b

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1-Apr : 17-Jul-14

The Australian Government may face resistance in the Senate to its plans to abolish some $A4bn worth of tax breaks as part of its proposal to repeal the mining tax. Two independent senators intend to vote against scrapping the tax breaks, and the defeat of this measure would be another blow for the Government, which has already faced opposition from Palmer United Party senators to several other measures that are linked to the mining tax

CORPORATES
PALMER UNITED PARTY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Palmer’s $9b bombshell

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1-Apr : 8-Jul-14

Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer on 7 July 2014 announced that its senators would vote against a further $A9.5bn worth of cuts planned by the Australian Government in the 2014-15 Budget. While agreeing to pass legislation for the repeal of the minerals resource rent tax, Palmer said programs funded with its revenue would be retained, at a cost of close to $A8bn. Similarly, the repeal of the carbon tax will not bring the proposed rise in the income tax-free threshold from $A18,200 to $A21,000. The total value of Budget initiatives now set to falter in the Senate is $A34bn

CORPORATES
PALMER UNITED PARTY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, BUSINESS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES. MEDICARE AUSTRALIA, ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Turnbull urged to take his $1m out of ‘vulture fund’

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Original article by Heath Aston
The Age – Page: 4 : 4-Jul-14

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey are leading a push to crack down on tax minimisation by multinational corporations via profit shifting. However the stance in the lead-up to the Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit in Brisbane in November 2014 appears to have been undermined by revelations that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has an investment worth about $A1m in the Bowery Opportunity Fund. The entity, a "vulture fund" acquiring distressed businesses, is registered in the Cayman Islands tax haven. Turnbull’s stake is not in breach of any laws, but at odds with the G20 agenda, critics say

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF COMMUNICATIONS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, GROUP OF TWENTY (G-20), CVC GLOBAL CREDIT OPPORTUNITY FUND LIMITED, BOWERY OPPORTUNITY FUND LP, BOWERY INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC, UNITING CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA, TAX JUSTICE NETWORK, GLENCORE XSTRATA PLC

Budget sales job failing

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Original article by Philip Coorey, Jacob Greber
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1-Aug : 1-Jul-14

Some $A25 billion of the spending cuts and revenue measures in the Australian Government’s May 2014 Budget are likely to be defeated. Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson said that detractors who invoke "vague notions" of unfairness to argue against reform effectively want Australia to enter a slow decline. Parkinson addressed the Crawford Australian Leadership Forum, as did Malcolm Turnbull, the Communications Minister. Turnbull said the nation is overly-dependent on income tax revenue. He implied that the Government has not been sufficiently convincing about the need for reform

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. NATIONAL COMMISSION OF AUDIT, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF COMMUNICATIONS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES. MEDICARE AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. CRAWFORD SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND GOVERNMENT