Australia in talks with Israel for tax treaty, says Treasurer Scott Morrison
The Turnbull government will introduce a tax treaty between Australia and Israel to improve business relations between the two countries.
The treaty is linked to the government’s plan to boost innovation in Australia as well as its push to further trade between the two countries as Israel’s technology sector booms.
Treasurer Scott Morrison announced the tax treaty on Friday at the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
“The government has now formally commenced negotiations with Israel on a tax treaty that will improve trade and investment by removing tax barriers for business which I’m hopeful will be included in the first half of next year,” he said.
Speaking after the lunch, Mr Morrison said it was too soon to say whether the treaty would include a taxation information exchange agreement – an agreement that allows authorities in each country to request information relating to specific criminal or civil tax investigations.
“We’ve just started that process and the government hasn’t come to any final view on a lot of these matters so we’ll just work that process over the next 12 months,” he said.
Mr Morrison also wouldn’t be drawn on whether the package would benefit casino magnate James Packer who has recently become a resident of Israel.
He also revealed he would introduce a five-yearly response to the intergenerational report from the Productivity Commission.
In addition, Mr Morrison defended the changes announced this week to the Coalition’s superannuation policy, saying the government had only changed 20 per cent of its policy which included scrapping the lifetime cap of $500,000 on non-concessional contributions to super and replace it with a measure that caps contributions at $180,000 a year.
“Overwhelmingly, 80 per cent of this package is completely untouched from what I announced on that budget. There have been some changes to one particular contentious measure and we’ve been able to that in a way where we still hit the objective of what the entire package was designed to achieve.”
