16th May 2024, 7:01 PM – Senate Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Accountability and Fairness) Bill 2023 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea

The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bill for a second time. In other words, they voted to agree with the main idea of the bill. This means they can now discuss the bill in greater detail.

What does this bill do?

According to the bills digest (which is a document prepared by the parliamentary library), these are the key points of the bill:

• Schedule 1 amends the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TAS Act) and the Tax Administration Act 1953 (TAA) to expand tax promoter penalty laws with the aim of ensuring that promoters of tax exploitation schemes face significant consequences for their actions.
• Schedule 2 amends the TAA to extend existing tax protections to whistleblowers who disclose information to the Tax Practitioners Board.
• Schedule 3 amends the TAS Act to allow the Tax Practitioners Board to publish details of its investigations and decisions and extend the timeframe for investigations.
• Schedule 4 amends the TAA and TAS Act to remove limitations on information sharing that were a barrier to regulators acting in response to PwC’s breach of confidence.
• Schedule 5 amends the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987 (PRRT Act) to limit the proportion of petroleum resource rent tax assessable income that can be offset by deductions to 90 percent of assessable receipts.
• The Bill has been referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee with a reporting date of 18 April 2024.
• Schedules 1 to 4 appear broadly uncontroversial. However, the unrelated amendments to the PRRT Act in Schedule 5 have been severely criticised by non-government parties and Independents in debate of the Bill in the House of Representatives. Calls have been made to split Schedule 5 from the Bill and consider it separately.

Quick Guide to Schedule 5:

The provisions in Schedule 5 to the Bill amend the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987 (PRRT Act) to place a cap of 90 per cent on the availability of deductible expenditure incurred in relation to a petroleum project for a year of tax, and consequently brings forward tax payable. The amendments are intended to ensure that the offshore LNG industry pays more tax sooner.