Chartered Accountants ANZ has lodged a submission with Treasury on the public country by country (CBC) revised exposure draft legislation (ED) and explanatory materials.

We are pleased that the revised ED has accepted some of the recommendations in our submission on the draft legislation dated 4 May 2023. These include:

• Removing the requirement to disclose certain items which are not currently required to be disclosed under current global public country by country (CBC) standards such as the ER Directive on public CBC reporting and GRI 207.
• Including a de minimis rule - a foreign headquartered multinational group with only a minimal presence in Australia should not have to be caught within the public CBC reporting regime.
• Deferring the application date for the new rules to a reporting period that starts on or after 1 July 2024. Removing the requirement to publish the effective tax rate based on Pillar Two rules.

Comments on the revised ED include:

• With the delay in releasing the revised ED for consultation, our members are concerned with the implementation timetable and CA ANZ recommends a staged implementation of the public CBC reporting requirements.
• Clarification of treatment of Australian Significant Global Entities (SGEs) with no foreign operations is needed.
• CA ANZ is concerned about the inclusion of jurisdictions, which are not in the EU non-cooperative and grey list of jurisdictions, in the list of reporting jurisdictions for Australian public CBC reporting.
• The list of jurisdictions for reporting needs to be reviewed annually for any updates required.

The submission also sets out priority issues that need guidance from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The role of the Board of Taxation’s Voluntary Tax Transparency Code and register also needs to be reviewed and a decision made as to its status.