Australia announces expert group to tackle multinational tax minimisation strategies

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Australia announces expert group to tackle multinational tax minimisation strategies

aus.jpg

David Bradbury, Australia’s assistant treasurer, yesterday announced the members that will make up the country’s new specialist reference group, which is tasked with examining the tax minimisation strategies used by multinationals and “its risks to the sustainability of Australia’s corporate tax base”.

“The way companies do business is changing and we need to ensure that international tax systems keep pace,” said Bradbury.

The assistant treasurer has asked the Treasury to work on a paper that will assess the risks to the sustainability of Australia’s corporate tax base from multinational companies’ tax minimisation techniques, as well as identifying potential responses.

“This specialist reference group will feed into that process, with Treasury drawing on members’ knowledge and expertise,” said Bradbury.

The formation of a specialist group comes in the wake of a raft of revelations about the amounts of corporation tax paid by multinational companies in certain jurisdictions. For example, Google, Amazon and Starbucks have all come under scrutiny in the UK in recent weeks.

Bradbury acknowledges that countries across the globe must take action to keep up with increasingly more innovative tax planning techniques.

“Governments around the world need to re-examine many of the key rules of international taxation, which are not keeping up with the changing business models and tax planning arrangements of many multinational companies,” he said.

Bradbury also said a key role of the group will be to “build community understanding of the nature of the challenges we face”. It will hold its first meeting in February 2013.

Group members:

Rob Heferen (chairman), executive director of the Treasury’s revenue group; Michael Bersten, partner at PwC; Michael D’Ascenzo, commissioner of taxation 2006-2012; Frank Drenth, executive director of the Corporate Tax Association of Australia; Serena Lillywhite, mining advocacy coordinator at OxFam Australia; Ross Lyons, general manager, tax, Asia Pacific for Rio Tinto; Tim Lyons, assistant secretary, ACTU; Peter Madden, partner at Deloitte; Jason Sharman, director at Griffith University’s Centre for Governance and Public Policy; Greg Smith, adjunct professor at the Australian Catholic University and senior fellow of the Melbourne Law Masters; Tony Stolarek, partner at Ernst & Young; Niv Tadmore, partner at Clayton Utz; Brian Wilson, chairman of the Foreign Investment Review Board; and Mark Zirnsak, director of the Justice and International Mission Unit, Uniting Church.

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

Wim Wuyts, who had been head of the specialist tax network since 2017, is moving on to a new role with WTS’s Belgian member firm
MNEs are increasingly using algorithmic tools in TP. Sahasranshu Dash argues that data ethics should therefore plug directly into the TP design process
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales also queried whether HMRC resources could be better spent scrutinising larger entities
Grant Thornton’s Austria tax head likens his practice to an escape room, shares his football coaching ambitions, and explains why tax is cool
Awards
ITR is delighted to reveal all the shortlisted nominees for the 2025 EMEA Tax Awards
Awards
ITR is delighted to reveal all the shortlisted nominees for the 2025 Asia-Pacific Tax Awards
The fates of pillars one and two hang in the balance after the US successfully threw its weight around in G7 and Canadian negotiations
Rafael Tena tells ITR about the ‘crazy’ Mexican market, ditching the hourly rate, and refusing to grow his fledgling firm in an ‘unstructured way’
It should be easy for advisers to be transparent about costs, Brown Rudnick partner Matthew Sharp said in response to exclusive ITR in-house data
The sprawling legislation phases out Joe Biden-era green tax incentives for businesses; in other news, the UK will reportedly maintain its DST despite US pressure
Gift this article