Australia

Under the superannuation guarantee (SG) scheme, which requires employers to contribute a certain percentage of an employee's earnings base, subject to limited exceptions, to a registered superannuation fund or retirement savings account on behalf of the employee, the required SG percentage permanently increased to 12% from 1 July 2025.  From 1 July 2026, ‘Payday Super’ is introduced, which requires employers to make eligible SG contributions to an employee’s superannuation fund within seven business days of payday. See the Other taxes section for more information.

Effective for income years commencing on or after 1 July 2024, debt deduction creation rules can apply to deny deductions for costs of related-party debt used to fund the acquisition of certain capital gains tax (CGT) assets from an associate or to fund certain payments and distributions to associates. See the Group taxation section for more information.

Small businesses (i.e. those with aggregated annual turnover of less than AUD 10 million) are able to immediately deduct the full cost of eligible assets costing less than AUD 20,000 that are first used or installed ready for use before 30 June 2026. See the Deductions section for more information.

For contracts entered into from 1 January 2025, a non-final 15% withholding tax applies to the gross proceeds of the sale of taxable Australian property by non-residents. See the Income determination section for more information.

The Australian government has recently signed tax treaties with the government of the Ukraine and Croatia. These are yet to enter into force. See the Withholding taxes section for more information.  

Additional scrutiny is now applied to foreign investment proposals with certain tax characteristics likely to be considered higher risk. Furthermore, a ‘Register of foreign ownership of Australian assets’ (FIRB asset register) applies, requiring ‘foreign persons’ (which broadly covers foreign entities and Australian entities with upstream foreign ownership) to register a broad range of assets. See the Other issues section for more information.

Australia has implemented the Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) Rules, a key component of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD’s) Two-Pillar Solution to address the tax challenges of digitalisation of the economy. This includes the Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) and a domestic minimum tax (DMT), which applies to fiscal years starting on or after 1 January 2024, and the Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR), which applies to fiscal years starting on or after 1 January 2025. See the Taxes on corporate income section for more information.

Greater tax transparency measures apply to multinationals, including an obligation for certain large multinational groups with an Australian presence to publicly disclose certain tax information on a country-by-country basis for income years commencing on or after 1 July 2024. See the Other issues section for more information.

The state of Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory now have a levy imposed on short-term accommodation stays. See the Other taxes section for more information.

Companies registered for the goods and services tax (GST) that have received a GST assurance rating will be required to lodge a supplementary annual GST return from the 2024/25 financial year. See the Tax administration section for more information.

 Australia will implement the OECD-developed Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) from 2027, along with a domestic crypto tax reporting regime. See the Other issues section for more information.