Over the last month, the ASF’s tax working group has engaged with Treasury in relation to concerns that proposed legislation (which adopts OECD guidelines to impose a minimum 15% tax on multi-national entities) will result in securitisation SPVs no longer retaining their tax neutrality status.
In addition to several meetings with Treasury, the ASF made a
written submission to Treasury on 22 July. The ASF subsequently appeared before the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on 6 August to outline those same concerns followed by a
written submission on 14 August.
The ASF is pleased to report that an amendment was made to the primary legislation before Parliament during the week of 23 August to exclude securitisation vehicles from the “joint and several” liability issue. Treasury has indicated that the other residual issues to clarify that securitisation SPVs will be excluded, will be incorporated in subordinated legislation that the ASF expects to be able to review in the drafting stage.
The expectation is that tax neutrality of securitisation SPVs will continue and tax opinions will not require any additional level of qualification. Please liaise with the firms who provide tax neutrality opinions for further information.