The Australian government is expanding its tax treaty network to provide improved certainty to taxpayers and guard against tax avoidance practices.
New negotiations are planned with Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These countries add to the current program which includes Portugal, Slovenia, Greece, and Luxembourg.
The current program also includes Iceland which signed a tax treaty with Australia in October this year.
This expansion will bolster Australia’s existing network of 46 bilateral tax treaties and increase the treaty network’s coverage to over 80 percent of foreign investment in Australia, a November 16 press release states.