Tag: Australia

JAT Volume 22 Issue 2 – CDU Tax Clinic

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NATIONAL TAX CLINIC PROGRAM IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY, AUSTRALIA: A PROJECT MODEL INNOVATION

INDRA ABEYSEKERA

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the activities undertaken by the Charles Darwin University Tax Clinic (‘CDU Tax Clinic’) —located in Australia’s Northern Territory —as part of the inaugural National Tax Clinic Program conducted over the course of 2019. The CDU Tax Clinic was designed as a teaching clinic in order to assist unrepresented taxpayers with their taxation affairs while offering students real-world, client-based and practical experience. The project design considered the population distribution of the Northern Territory and ways of reaching unrepresented taxpayers located in three major towns, adopting an intrapreneurial and client-centred approach with the CDU Tax Clinic open seven days per week. In the period from late June 2019 to the end of October 2019, the CDU Tax Clinic served 266 clients in various ways, with six students undertaking work experience. The average time spent with a client was approximately two and a half hours. This paper provides a roadmap to maximising outreach to clients in a thinly populated geography. The findings are analysed in terms of clients who visited the CDU Tax Clinic and are generalisable to such populations. This paper shows the impact of a social project assisting socially disadvantaged groups, and a university engaging with the community through a professor and students.

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JAT Volume 21 Issue 1 Article 1 – Nethercott, Gonzaga and Esin

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COUNTRY – BY – COUNTRY REPORTING: A NEW DIMENSION IN TAXPAYER COMPLIANCE OBLIGATIONS IN AUSTRALIA
Abstract
The G20/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Action Plan (BEPS Action Plan) aims to combat tax evasion through an effort to improve tax transparency and enhance the exchange of information and co-operation between tax authorities, governments and global entities. As part of the BEPS Action Plan’s recommendations on transfer pricing documentation, country-by-country reporting (CbCR) requirements have been introduced in many countries, including Australia. This paper analyses the Australian CbCR legislation and the impact of compliance requirements on large multinational consolidated groups in Australia. The paper reflects on CbCR issues that include and transcend the taxation sphere, such as general business reporting and corporate governance, as well as the consequences of failing to comply with CbCR obligations. The discussion underlines the need for a cohesive global cooperative effort involving tax authorities and taxpayers. It also raises the need for reporting entities to make the necessary governance adjustments in order to comply with the CbCR obligations, which will support the objectives outlined in the BEPS Action Plan.

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