Australia Advance Tax Deals Dip on Complexity, Global Tax Moves

Australian tax authorities are working on fewer advance pricing agreements than they used to, and negotiations are taking longer as cases are more complex.

The government has shifted its emphasis from unilateral agreements with companies to bilateral or multilateral APAs involving other countries.

New data from the Australian Taxation Office shows the total number of APAs under negotiation declined from 90 in 2021-22 to 79 last year and this year.

APAs can be sought by companies to avoid future disputes by having authorities pre-bless their tax arrangements, and typically focus on transfer pricing—the valuation of transactions between members of a ...