Treasury:

GST on Offshore Hotel Bookings, closing on Thursday 9 August 2018.

The draft legislation will extend the GST by ensuring that offshore sellers of hotel accommodation in Australia calculate their GST turnover in the same way as local sellers from 1 July 2019.

Currently, unlike GST-registered businesses in Australia, offshore sellers of Australian hotel accommodation are exempt from including sales of hotel accommodation in their GST turnover. This means they are often not required to register for and charge GST on their mark-up over the wholesale price of the accommodation.

Both Australian and foreign consumers are increasingly booking Australian hotel rooms through online services based offshore, which are taking advantage of an exemption designed for offshore tour operators. Removing the exemption will level the playing field by ensuring the same tax treatment of Australian hotel accommodation, whether booked through a domestic or offshore company.

The measure will apply to sales made on or after 1 July 2019. Sales that occur before 1 July 2019 will not be subject to the measure even if the stay at the hotel occurs after this date.

 

Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Regulations 2018, closing on Wednesday 15 August 2018.

The existing Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Regulations 1993 are scheduled to sunset on 1 October 2018. To ensure the ongoing operation of the Superannuation Guarantee, draft Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Regulations 2018 have been made. The draft Regulations make no alteration to the substantive meaning or operation of the existing Regulations. Minor technical changes have been made to adopt current drafting practices and to remove redundant references, and make consequential amendments required by updates to Migration Regulations 1994 which changed the visa classes to which the existing Regulations referred. Further details on the draft Regulations are contained in the Explanatory Statement. The community’s views are sought on the draft Regulations.

 

Extending the definition of a Significant Global Entity (SGE), closing on Friday 17 August 2018.

The Government announced in the 2018-19 Budget that it was extending the definition of a Significant Global Entity (SGE) to include members of large business groups headed by proprietary companies, trusts, partnerships and investment entities.

A Significant Global Entity (SGE) is a concept to define, generally speaking, a group of entities, interrelated by a control relationship that could enable non-arm’s length dealings and therefore be of special interest to tax authorities.

Originally devised to determine application of OECD Country by Country reporting requirements, the SGE definition is now also used to determine application of the Multilateral Anti-Avoidance Law, the Diverted Profits Tax and penalties applying to false or misleading statements, late lodgement or tax schemes. Also SGEs are required to prepare general purpose financial statements where a non-SGE would only be required to prepare special purpose financial statements.

The current SGE definition however only includes groups headed by listed companies and private companies required to prepare general purpose financial statements. By extending the definition, the proposed legislation will ensure the multinational tax avoidance rules apply to all relevant entities.

 

2018-19 Budget Black Economy Measure – Further expansion of the taxable payment reporting system, closing on Friday 17 August 2018.

The Government has released for public consultation exposure draft legislation and explanatory memorandum to further expand the taxable payment reporting system (TPRS) to three new industries: ‘road freight’, ‘information technology’, or ‘security, investigation or surveillance’, to ensure payments made to contractors in these industries are reported to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

The ATO will release a draft determination and guidance material that will provide further detail on the operation of the TPRS measure. The information on the TPRS obligations and reporting requirements that currently apply to the building and construction industry is available on the ATO website. As this information only applies to the building and construction industry it is indicative only, of similar obligations which would apply to the three new industries.

 

2018-19 Budget Black Economy Measure- Removing tax deductibility of certain payments, closing on Friday 17 August 2018.

The Government has released for public consultation exposure draft legislation and explanatory memorandum to remove tax deductibility of certain payments – including payment of wages and payments to contractors – if the entity making the payment fails to comply with its obligations to withhold and report information to the Commissioner of Taxation.

 

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