The Australian Tax Office (ATO) are cracking down on trust structure, and may result in these trusts paying double the tax they are paying now. What they are targeting are the stapled securities, used for a long time for commercial property deals. This has allowed the foreign investors to pay a discounted tax rate of 15% rather than the full tax rate of 30%. The ones that they are zooming in on are:

1. toll roads
2. airports
3. energy
4. telecommunications
5. ports
6. wind farms
7. solar assets

Some common companies that may be affected are:

1. Spark
2. SP Ausnet (SGX listed)
3. APA
4. DUET (which Li Kar Shing is trying to purchase through Cheung Kong Infrastructure)
5. Sydney Airport

ATO is not very happy, particularly in the last few years where they see a heighten amount of these structures being created to minimize the tax they paid.

The Stapled Securities Structure for the Investor (that is not ...

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