Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Accountability for Tax Adviser Misconduct and Other Measures) Bill 2026
Senator AYRES (New South Wales—Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science) (12:56): I'd like to thank senators for their contributions to the debate. Schedule 1 to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Accountability for Tax Adviser Misconduct and Other Measures) Bill 2026 amends the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 to include a new and expanded regulatory sanction toolkit for the Tax Practitioners Board to respond to misconduct in the tax profession and by unregistered preparers, including poor and unlawful tax advice, in a timely way.
The schedule introduces new criminal offences for unregistered preparers, new civil penalty provisions and increased maximum civil penalty amounts and new powers that enable the Tax Practitioners Board to issue infringement notice penalties, enter into enforceable voluntary undertakings, impose contingent and interim suspensions of registration and impose an extended maximum duration of terminations of registration of 10 years.
The amendments improve protections for taxpayers by driving better behaviour, addressing and deterring misconduct and maintaining community confidence in the integrity of the tax system. These changes form part of the government's response to the PwC tax leaks matter and implement recommendations from the 2019Independent review of the Tax Practitioners Board.
Schedule 2 to the bill amends the tax law to strengthen the foreign resident capital gains tax regime. It ensures Australia can tax foreign residents on direct and indirect sales of assets with a close economic connection to Australian land more in line with the tax treatment that already applies to Australian companies. It will also improve compliance with the existing foreign resident CGT withholding rules and increase the Australian Taxation Office's oversight of transactions where a foreign resident self-assesses that they do not have a taxable interest in Australian real property.
This supports the integrity and sustainability of the tax system and was informed by extensive engagement with stakeholders. Schedule 3 to the bill amends the tax law to provide a transitional 50 per cent CGT discount for foreign investors on the disposal of eligible renewable energy assets until 30 June 2040. This reflects the importance of foreign investment for Australia's electricity transition while ensuring the tax treatment of these assets aligns with the treatment of other assets in the longer term.
The 2040 timeline acknowledges that renewable infrastructure assets can have a long construction and development phase. Schedules 2 and 3 implement the government 2024-25 budget measure and will commence prospectively on the first quarter after royal assent. Schedule 4 to the bill amends the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to deliver refinements to support a faster, more transparent and risk based merger regime.
The government has heard from businesses, advisers and regulators about how to fine tune that regime. First, the amendments adjust the legal consequences where parties have not notified the regulator, the ACCC, when they should have by making such acquisitions voidable instead of automatically void. This minimises unintended consequences, especially for innocent third parties, where the existing voiding provisions would otherwise automatically unwind.
The amendments still preserve the incentive for parties to notify when appropriate. Second, the amendments introduce a mechanism for merger parties to seek extensions from the ACCC for the period in which they can put an approved acquisition into effect. The extension can be up to six months and may apply where there are reasonable delays in putting an acquisition into effect.
Multiple extensions may be granted. This will also apply to transactions already approved in the 12 months prior to the commencement of the bill. Third, the amendments better target when an acquisition needs to be notified.
Acquisitions that are unlikely to result in a practical ability to influence competition will not need to be notified as originally intended. This will benefit venture capital investing in startups. Combined, these amendments improve regulatory certainty and reduce unnecessary compliance burden.
They also achieve the regime's original key objectives of a faster, more transparent and risk based regime that promotes competition and supports economic activity. Schedule 5 to the bill amends the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and the Productivity Commission Act 1998 to give legal force to the current national competition principles and regulatory structures.
The measure substitutes references to the 1995 National Competition Policy agreements with references to the 2024 Intergovernmental Agreement on National Competition Policy, the NCP agreement, and introduces definitions of 'public interest test' and 'competitive neutrality arrangements'. To futureproof these amendments, the measure also introduces power for the minister to specify any new agreement to be the NCP agreement and new arrangements to be the competitive neutrality arrangements.
Schedule 6 to the bill amends the tax law to specifically list the Ross House Trust, Tanarra Social Purpose Ltd and i4Give Foundation Ltd as deductible gift recipients and extends the existing listings of the Australian Academy of Law and Cambridge Australia Scholarships Ltd. Schedule 7 to the bill implements a recommendation of the Productivity Commission's philanthropy inquiry by changing the name 'ancillary funds' to 'giving funds'.
The new name better reflects the central role that these philanthropic funds play in supporting charities. Schedule 8 to the bill makes minor and technical amendments to the tax law to give effect to the Australian Taxation Office's current administrative treatment to ensure that tax credits arising from amounts withheld from the disposal of Australian real property can be claimed in an assessment for the same income year that the disposal is recognised for tax purposes.
On that basis, I commend the bill to the Senate. The PRESIDENT: The question is that the second reading amendment moved by Senator Canavan be agreed to.