This weekend Brisbane will host the Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders’ Summit.

The G20 comprises 19 countries plus the European Union and this year Australia is President of the grouping. Prime Minister Tony Abbott is calling this weekend ‘the most important meeting ever held in Australia’; certainly a bold claim, but in the tax space, the meeting is expected to endorse the current work on multinational tax issues and BEPS.

Will there be any unexpected tax announcements? We have urged the Government not to make decisions that would put Australia at a competitive disadvantage in relation to the global business community, by moving out of step on BEPS. We must continue to work closely with other G20 nations and the OECD on the BEPS action items to ensure that our tax laws are keeping pace with global business practices.

Who’s Who

Experiencing the Brisbane hospitality will be Presidents/PMs including: Obama; Xi Jinping (China), David Cameron (UK), Joko Widodo (Indonesia), Francois Hollande (France), Angela Merkel (Germany), Narendra Modi (India) and Vladimir Putin.

Commencing today and continuing into next week in Canberra, the leaders of Britain, China and India will separately address joint sittings of the Australian Parliament.

The Australian Government’s attention is expected to turn back to matters domestic, including the release of the issues paper to kick off the tax white paper process, in the coming weeks.

Robert Jeremenko CTA is Senior Tax Counsel of The Tax Institute.