Mandatory Disclosure
1. This paper is the response of the Taxation Committee of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia (‘Law Council’) to the discussion paper released by the Australian Government in May 2016 in respect of the OECD proposals for mandatory disclosure of tax information.
2. The purpose of the paper is to set out the Law Council’s views as to how the foreshadowed mandatory disclosure rules should be framed having regard to disclosure rules that are currently available to the Australian Taxation Office and to respond to the Government’s preliminary views in relation to the OECD’s key recommendations.
3. The starting point is the statement in the Final Report of Action Item 12 of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project which is set out in paragraph 4 of the Discussion Paper.