March 06, 2012
Paul Hickey
Toronto, National Tax Centre
The Australian government has announced it will strengthen Australia's general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR). In response to the Australia High Court's refusal to overturn a previous court decision (the RCI case), a new concept of "tax benefit" will apply for Australia's GAAR as of March 1, 2012. However, the actual change to the rule will not be known until around September 2012, after a consultation period.