The Curious Reform of Foreign Source Income

Abstract

Recently enacted measures which change the tax treatment of foreign source income seem to have been largely overlooked. They deserve greater attention because they produce curious and potentially illogical outcomes for many classes of Australian taxpayers. They are the unpublicised consequences of choices made in the design of Australia’s anti-hybrid rules, rules which were intended to curb the aggressive tax avoidance practices of multinational enterprises. Instead, they extend to many types of resident taxpayers earning some classes of foreign source income. This article demonstrates how entirely innocuous situations, which display no element of cross-border disagreement between countries, can be affected by these rules and how the impacts can be quite unexpected.

Keywords: income tax, international tax, OECD BEPS Project, tax avoidance, hybrid entities

JEL Classification: H20, H25, H26, K10, K30, K34