Public Country-by-Country Reporting in Australia: $1B Global, $10M AU Revenue from 1 July 2024

Who is in scope

The public country-by-country reporting regime in Australia applies to country-by-country reporting parents with annual global income of A$1 billion or more. An additional threshold requires A$10 million or more of aggregated turnover for the income year to be Australian-sourced. FATCA and CRS in Australia explained

Both Australian-headquartered and foreign-headquartered groups are in scope if these thresholds are met. The measure was passed in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Responsible Buy Now Pay Later and Other Measures) Act 2024, receiving Royal Assent on 10 December 2024.

Reporting periods starting on or after 1 July 2024 are subject to the requirements.

What must be disclosed

The information that must be disclosed relates to revenue (both related-party and unrelated), profit before income tax, income tax paid (on a cash basis), income tax accrued, the number of employees, tangible assets, and a description of main business activities. This reporting must be presented on a country-by-country basis for Australia and a list of specified jurisdictions, and aggregated for the rest of the world. Corporate tax residency reform status

Alongside the financial and operational data, entities are required to publish a statement outlining their approach to taxation. This statement forms an integral part of the public disclosure requirements.

The disclosed information must be published on an Australian government website, the data.gov.au platform, and made available free of charge. Reporting is due within 12 months of the end of the reporting period.

Specified jurisdictions

The Australian public country-by-country reporting requirements mandate disaggregation of data at the country level for specified jurisdictions. The Minister has made a legislative instrument to define these jurisdictions, which are selected based on their public interest from a tax-transparency perspective, including low-tax jurisdictions and major trading partners.

Jurisdictions not included on the specified list must be aggregated into a ‘rest of world’ figure for reporting purposes. This approach represents a narrower scope than the European Union’s model, which requires reporting for all jurisdictions, but a broader scope than the previous OECD non-public country-by-country report. Thin capitalisation 2024 reform: earnings-based test

The list of specified jurisdictions is subject to review and can be amended by subsequent legislative instruments issued by the Minister.

Compliance and penalties

The Commissioner of Taxation administers the Public Country-by-Country Reporting regime in Australia. This operates alongside the existing OECD-aligned non-public Country-by-Country report lodged with the ATO under Subdivision 815-E. Australian and foreign-owned subsidiaries of in-scope groups may need to coordinate with overseas parents to compile the report.

Failure to lodge the Public Country-by-Country report attracts penalties. Standard SGE-tier penalties apply, scaled at 500 times the ordinary base penalty unit value. Arrangements designed to avoid the reporting obligations may be subject to Part IVA ITAA 1936 general anti-avoidance.

An exemption from public disclosure can be sought. This is possible where publication would prejudice national security, prejudice law enforcement, or breach Australian law.