Australia Details Tax Incentives For Infrastructure Projects

Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

26 October 2011

In a bid to promote private investment, the government of Australia has announced the proposed introduction of tax loss incentives for qualifying infrastructure projects.

Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Anthony Albanese announced the decision as Australia seeks to develop its infrastructure to remain a competitive economic nation for the twenty-first century.

A discussion paper has been made available on the proposed changes, which were first announced in the 2011-12 Budget. It discusses possible new rules for tax loss incentives for projects which are on Infrastructure Australia’s National Priority List, those which are deemed of “national significance”.

According to the government, the new rules for tax losses that are attributable to designated infrastructure projects will: uplift the value of carry forward tax losses by the 10 year government bond rate; and exempt the tax losses from the continuity of ownership test and the 'same business' test.

Treasurer Shorten said of the decision: "The proposed changes will allow investors to more easily and with greater flexibility claim losses, making this type of investment more attractive to the private sector, including superannuation funds."

The Treasury is calling for comments from interested parties relating to the design and implementation of the proposals by December 9, 2011.

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