Australia: Transfer pricing reforms

Ian Farmer

The Australian government has released an exposure draft (ED) of the first of two stages of reforms to the Australian transfer pricing rules. The ED proposes to introduce new rules that will apply retrospectively from 2004 to give the Commissioner an additional power to impose tax where a taxpayer engages in dealings that may be subject to a double tax treaty.

The Commissioner will be able to apply the new rules where he considers that a taxpayer''s actual profits are lower than the profits that would have accrued if the taxpayer had been dealing on an arm''s-length basis....