Capital gains tax rules for foreign investors

Legislative provisions which impose foreign resident capital gains withholding payments in regard to property acquisitions came into effect in July 2016. An updated rate and threshold now applies to contracts entered into after 1 July 2017. From 1 July 2017 the threshold to withhold has been reduced from $2 million to $750,000 and the withholding rate has been increased from 10% to 12.5%. Although these provisions are designed to impose withholding payments liability on foreign residents, they effectively impose important obligations on all purchasers and vendors where the transaction is over the threshold amount. The ATO has said that voluntary compliance with Australia's...