New Australia/Germany Double Tax Treaty shows Australia’s policy response to BEPS

On 13 November 2015 the Treasurer and Minister of Finance jointly announced that a new double tax treaty had been negotiated with Germany, replacing the 1972 agreement.

The new treaty has not yet been formally adopted as part of Australian law, as a change to the International Tax Agreements Act 1953 (Cth) needs to pass through Parliament. The text of the new treaty (which can be found here) evidences Australia’s Treaty policy response to recommendations made by the OECD as part of the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project.

In this Alert we summarise the BEPS treaty proposals made by the OECD, and draw attention to Australia’s response as evidenced in the new Australia/Germany Double Tax Treaty.

For further details about the BEPS project, see: MinterEllison: Tracking the changes to Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.

Summary of the Treaty proposals in OECD’s BEPS Papers and Australia’s response

Click here to view table.