Treasury Laws Amendment (2020 Measures No. 2) Bill 2020

The majority voted in favour of amendments introduced by SA Senator Rex Patrick (Centre Alliance), which means it succeeded.

What do the amendments do?

Senator Patrick explained that:

This amendment seeks to remove from the statutes an exemption for 1,119 large proprietary companies from having to lodge an annual return with ASIC. That exemption creates a situation where there is scope for aggressive tax minimisation. That is what was presented to the Senate committee inquiring into corporate tax avoidance in the 44th and 45th parliaments. It also creates a situation where you have one class of companies and another class of companies. Any new company that comes along that meets the criteria for annual reports doesn't get an exemption. We can't have a situation where we have elite, wealthy business owners simply not having to lodge annual reports.