Bill
Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015
passed, as at 2015-12-11. Treasury portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Treasury
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2015-09-16
- second reading — 2015-09-16
- second reading — 2015-10-19
- second reading — 2015-10-19
- third reading — 2015-10-19
- introduced — 2015-11-09
- second reading — 2015-11-09
- second reading — 2015-11-09
- second reading — 2015-11-10
- second reading — 2015-11-10
- committee — 2015-11-10
- committee — 2015-11-11
- third reading — 2015-11-11
- other — 2015-11-12
- other — 2015-11-12
- other — 2015-12-03
- other — 2015-12-03
- passed — 2015-12-03
- royal assent — 2015-12-11
Divisions
- Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015 - in Committee - General purpose financial report — 2015-11-10, Senate: affirmative, ayes 34, noes 27
- The majority voted in favour of [amendments](http://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2015-11-11.166.1) moved by Greens Senator [Peter Whish-Wilson](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/tasmania/peter_whish-wilson). The amendments will now go to the House of Represenatives for them to consider before they can become part of the bill. ### What were the amendments? The amendments give the [Australian Taxation Office](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Taxation_Office) a discretion to prevent the disclosure of tax information of large Australian-owned private companies if the ATO thinks releasing that information would be prejudicial to the companies' commercial negotiations. ### What does the bill do? The [bill](http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:legislation/billhome/r5549) strengthens the laws against [tax avoidance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_avoidance) for certain companies. For example, it introduces anti-avoidance measures to deal with [multinational companies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_corporation) with an annual global income of more than $A1 billion that use schemes to avoid having to pay tax in Australia or at least reduce that tax to a minimum. To learn more about the bill, see the [bills digest](http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1516a/16bd045). — 2015-11-11, Senate: affirmative, ayes 32, noes 29
- Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015 - Consideration of Senate Message - Disagree with the Senate's amendments — 2015-11-12, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 78, noes 54
- The majority [voted in favour](http://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2015-12-03.184.4) of not insisting on [amendment (3)](http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fsched%2Fr5549_sched_df449ead-d215-4095-a09e-f50b298518f1%22;rec=0), which the House of Representatives had disagreed with. ### What does this mean? While considering [the bill](http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:legislation/billhome/r5549), the Senate proposed amendments, including amendment (3). However, the House of Represenatives disagreed with amendment (3) and so it was now up to the Senate to decide on whether to insist on the amendment (in which case, the bill would fail) or to accept the House's opinion. ### What was amendment (3) and why did the House disagree with it? The House of Representative's [Reasons for Disagreeing to the Senate Amendments](http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:legislation/billhome/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fsched%2Fr5549_sched_a37d0937-144e-4982-8aa0-aa826fafecd5%22;rec=0) explained that: > *[Amendments (1) and (3)] ... provide the [Australian Taxation Office](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Taxation_Office) with a discretion to prevent the disclosure of the tax information of large Australian-owned private companies if it considers that the release of such information would be prejudicial to that entity’s commercial negotiations.* > *The intention of this Bill is similar to the intent of the House of Representatives in passing the [Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (Better Targeting the Income Tax Transparency Laws) Act 2015](http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5518). That is, to balance the need for greater public transparency in the tax affairs of large companies while not jeopardising the privacy and competitiveness of Australian owned private companies.* > — 2015-12-03, Senate: affirmative, ayes 36, noes 25
- Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015 - in Committee - Tax information of companies earning over $100m — 2015-12-03, Senate: negative, ayes 21, noes 38
- Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015 - in Committee - Tax information of some companies earning over $200m — 2015-12-03, Senate: negative, ayes 7, noes 40
- Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015 - in Committee - Tax information of companies earning over $200m — 2015-12-03, Senate: affirmative, ayes 36, noes 26
- Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015 - in Committee - Remove 'grandfathering' provisions — 2015-12-03, Senate: negative, ayes 25, noes 36
Plain-language summary
No machine-written summary in this export.
Sources
em
billhome
frl act