Australia Walks Its Own Path on Public CbC Reporting

Leading industry publication Taxnotes reports on the new Australian legislation to increases tax transparency.

“Jason Ward, principal analyst for the Sydney-based Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research, applauded the final legislation, telling Tax Notes that his organization also hopes that Australia’s legislation, and its reliance on the GRI tax framework, will set the standard for public CbC reporting.

He added that calls for Australia to follow the EU standard were unrealistic.
“When opponents argued for Australia to follow the EU model, they failed to mention the US’s incoming FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) tax transparency reporting requirements. While a positive step the new FASB rules go off in a different direction and are also not consistent with the EU [public CbC reporting] directive,” Ward pointed out. “Additionally, national legislation to implement the EU directive has seen significant variations in [public CbC reporting] rules amongst EU countries as well.“”