Offshore growth hit by dividend rules

ANZ Bank chairman David Gonski has called for changes to dividend imputation, saying the system discourages offshore investment by large corporates that provide “enormous benefits” to the nation.

While a “huge fan” of dividend imputation’s role in raising local investment and stimulating companies to pay a full tax rate, Mr Gonski said yesterday it had now come to a point where big companies were paying a lot of tax ­offshore with no benefit to their shareholders.