Canberra widens the capital gains net over foreign investors as the first minimum tax returns come due.

Canberra widens the capital gains tax over foreign investors in mining, energy and infrastructure while stepping back from retrospectivity; the High Court's Bendel decision hands trusts a Division 7A reprieve even as the Budget's minimum tax on trust distributions approaches; and the first Pillar Two filing season opens into a patchwork of national extensions.

On 2 July 2026 the government introduced a Bill that materially expands Australia's capital gains tax over foreign residents, broadening the assets caught to include mining, energy and infrastructure holdings and reaching existing investments rather than only newly acquired ones. In a marked retreat from the April draft, the Bill abandons the power to reopen transactions back to 2006 and applies only to capital gains tax events after commencement, save for cases such as suspected fraud or evasion. The expansion is paired with a concessional 15 per cent rate and a four-year transition for qualifying renewable-energy investment, with the higher rate applying from 2030.

Why it matters. More than seventy per cent of Australia's energy-transition investment is foreign-sourced, and the absence of grandfathering means assets acquired in good faith under the previous settings will bear the expanded tax on a future disposal; industry has warned this incentivises selling within the concessional window rather than holding. The origin lies in last year's Federal Court losses for Newmont and YTL Power, and removing the retrospective limb strips out two sources of uncertainty, whether current objections and litigation could be upended and whether two decades of completed transactions might be revisited.

What clients should do. Re-run the taxable Australian property analysis for every material holding in mining, energy and infrastructure, including indirect interests under the principal asset rules, model the 15 per cent transition rate against the post-2030 position, review any live objection or litigation in light of the removed retrospectivity, and watch the parliamentary process while the transition and rate settings are not yet locked.

On 10 June 2026 the High Court, by a 5:2 majority, dismissed the Commissioner's appeal in Commissioner of Taxation v Bendel [2026] HCA 18, holding that an amount a trust resolves to appoint to a corporate beneficiary but leaves unpaid does not, without more, constitute a loan or the provision of financial accommodation within section 109D(3) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936. The ATO has now confirmed, in a Decision Impact Statement, that it accepts the construction and will withdraw or revise its position, most directly TD 2022/11, that treated such an entitlement as capable of giving rise to a deemed dividend under Division 7A.

Why it matters. A framework that shaped private-group planning from TR 2010/3 through TD 2022/11 has lost its foundation, and the mere retention of an unpaid entitlement now falls outside Division 7A. But the relief is neither complete nor to be read in isolation: section 100A and Part IVA may still apply on the facts, and the 2026-27 Budget is tightening trust taxation from the other side, with an announced minimum 30 per cent tax on trust distributions slated to commence from 1 July 2028 whose design is still to come.

What clients should do. Review unpaid entitlement balances and any complying loan agreements or sub-trust arrangements built on TD 2022/11, decide on the record whether to maintain or unwind them against the residual section 100A and Part IVA exposure and the incoming distribution tax, preserve amendment and objection options for years assessed on the old view, and avoid restructures premised on Bendel alone that the 2028 measure could overtake.

The first GloBE Information Return, for fiscal years ending on or before 31 December 2024, was statutorily due on 30 June 2026 in most jurisdictions, but the fortnight around the deadline produced a wave of national accommodations: Turkiye and Barbados extended to 31 July, Greece to 30 October, and Ireland set a penalty-free central-filing backstop of 30 September, while the United Kingdom put its filing mechanics on a statutory footing, Belgium released its notification tool, and Luxembourg and Greece confirmed that a central Cyprus filing releases local obligations. In Australia the return and the combined global and domestic minimum tax return carried the same 30 June date, softened by the ATO's 30-day administrative deferral to 30 July under PCG 2025/4.

Why it matters. The central-filing architecture only relieves local filing where the specific exchange relationship and the host jurisdiction's qualified status are confirmed, and those confirmations, the Cyprus income inclusion rule, Ireland's conditions and Belgium's tool, are being connected in real time; the practical calendar is now jurisdiction-specific and, in several cases, later than 30 June, but only for those who have verified it rather than assumed it.

What clients should do. Build a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction filing map recording the filing entity, channel, extended deadline and whether central filing releases the local obligation, confirm the host's qualified status and the live exchange relationship before relying on central filing, and in Australia treat the 30 July window as a deliberate, documented choice rather than a reason to slow the data work.

Slovakia's Ministry of Finance opened a consultation on 25 June, closing 15 July, on a draft law transposing the OECD Side-by-Side Package, the administrative guidance the Inclusive Framework adopted on 5 January 2026 and the European Commission confirmed on 12 January. The package implements the G7's June 2025 understanding that US-parented groups under a qualified side-by-side regime are excluded from the income inclusion rule and the undertaxed profits rule for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2026, extends the transitional country-by-country safe harbour by a year to fiscal years beginning before 31 December 2027 at the 17 per cent rate, and adds a new safe harbour for tax incentives tied to economic substance.

Why it matters. This is the mechanism through which the US carve-out becomes operative rather than political; for groups with a US ultimate parent or US-parented sub-group, exposure to income inclusion rule and undertaxed profits rule top-up is materially reduced where a qualified regime applies, and as at January 2026 the United States was the only jurisdiction on the central record with one. The one-year extension of the transitional safe harbour also buys another year of simplified testing for qualifying jurisdictions.

What clients should do. Test eligibility for the side-by-side safe harbour for any structure with a US parent or US-parented sub-group and quantify the reduction in modelled top-up, re-run transitional safe harbour testing on the extended window before assuming a jurisdiction falls out, and track Australia's transposition timetable, because Australia has legislated its primary and domestic minimum taxes but has not yet enacted the Side-by-Side Package.

From 1 July two EU regulations gave legal effect to the 2025 EU-US Joint Statement: Regulation (EU) 2026/1455 removes or reduces the common customs tariff on listed US-origin goods and opens tariff quotas, and Regulation (EU) 2026/1461 extends duty-free treatment to specified US products with reimbursement of excess duties paid since 1 August 2025, both carrying suspension triggers if the United States fails to honour the Statement or keeps steel and aluminium tariffs above 15 per cent after 31 December 2026. In parallel, the European Union replaced its expired steel safeguard with a tariff-rate-quota regime carrying a 50 per cent out-of-quota duty, and the United States indefinitely suspended its de minimis exemption for imports of USD 800 or less by any mode other than international post, effective 24 June, following the Supreme Court's decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v Trump and Executive Order 14338.

Why it matters. The customs line is moving in both directions at once: transatlantic flows of covered goods become cheaper and quota-managed, while US-bound low-value shipments lose duty-free entry and must clear on formal or informal entries with duties and documentation, a step-change for direct-to-consumer and e-commerce models. The separate Australia-US customs mutual-assistance agreement of 25 June signals closer information exchange on valuation and origin.

What clients should do. Map the tariff lines and lanes affected by the EU-US regulations and the new steel quota, reassess landed-cost and margin models for US-facing distribution and anything reliant on de minimis entry, and revisit the alignment between customs value and transfer price now that the two customs authorities have agreed to share information.

Capital gains reform awaits assent. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No 1) Bill 2026, replacing the 50 per cent CGT discount with indexation and a 30 per cent minimum tax on net capital gains and restricting negative gearing on established residential property, passed on 25 June and awaits Royal Assent; the core changes commence 1 July 2027.

Trust distributions: a 30 per cent minimum tax to come. The Budget's trust integrity measures, including an announced minimum 30 per cent tax on trust distributions, are slated for 1 July 2028; the design is still to come and the detail will matter, and Bendel should be read against it rather than in isolation.

Loss carry-back and instant asset write-off. The Tax Reform No 2 Bill, introduced 25 June, carries a refundable loss carry-back offset and makes the AUD 20,000 instant asset write-off permanent for entities under AUD 10 million turnover; the Senate Economics Legislation Committee reports by 13 August 2026.

Australia-US customs cooperation. Australia and the United States signed an agreement on mutual administrative assistance in customs matters on 25 June in Brussels, reinforcing the need for consistency between customs valuations and transfer prices.

A working view of the milestones now in play. The statutory GloBE Information Return date has not moved; only the enforcement posture has. Confirm each entity's obligation against its local rules and verify exchange activation before relying on central filing.