A Bill to enact OECD BEPS Measure 15 was introduced into the
House on 28 March 2018, with the government's hope that it will
pass the Parliament before the end of the financial year on 30 June
2018. If enacted, this will make Australia one of the first
signatories to implement Measure 15.
Measure 15, the Multilateral Instrument (MLI – signed by
Australia and 67 other countries on 7 June 2017), will obtain the
force of law in Australia by amendment to the Tax Agreements Act by
Treasury Laws Amendment (OECD Multilateral Instrument) Bill 2018
with earliest likely effect from 1 January 2019.
The MLI will have the effect that where parties to a bilateral
double tax agreement (DTA) were both signatories to the MLI, and
had both elected to adopt the same amendments to their DTAs under
the MLI, the bilateral DTA would not need to be individually
renegotiated. This approach has the opportunity of allowing the
OECD BEPS recommendations to be implemented on a world-wide
