Australia tax officials were frustrated this week in their desire for a domestic court decision on whether Oracle Australia’s transactions with an affiliate contained embedded royalties subject to withholding tax.
Some tax professionals acknowledged the Australian Taxation Office’s hope for a court determination to help clarify embedded-royalty taxation, a high-profile controversy involving US multinationals. But the practitioners welcomed the Federal Court’s decision to require a dispute resolution process to play out, as Oracle wanted.
“The ATO can’t force taxpayers into one form of remedy,” said Angelina Lagana, head of tax controversy at Corrs Chambers Westgarth. “The commissioner should ...