The definition of “significant global entity” to include members of large business groups headed by private companies, trusts, partnerships, investment entities, and individuals.
Australia is extending the definition of “significant global entity” beyond groups headed by listed companies and by private companies required to prepare general purpose financial statements.
The Treasury Laws Amendment (2020 Measures No.1) Bill 2020, which was submitted to the House of Representatives on February 12, extends the definition of “significant global entity” to include members of large business groups headed by private companies, trusts, partnerships, investment entities, and individuals.
Significant global entity is a concept to mean 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. The announcement to expand the definition of significant global entity was first made in the 2018-19 Budget.
Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said: “Many of the significant measures undertaken by this Government to tackle multinational tax avoidance rely on this SGE definition. These include the multilateral anti-avoidance law, the diverted profits tax, and penalties applying to false or misleading statements, late lodgement of documents, or tax schemes.”
“Extending the definition, therefore, will ensure that multinationals cannot structure to avoid our multinational tax integrity rules, which remain amongst the strongest in the world,” he added.
The author is Alex Hunter, Editor, TP News. He oversees and updates the publication and also regularly writes news stories about transfer pricing and international tax law. Alex is reachable at editor@transferpricingnews.com