The Australian Government has announced that an agreement was reached with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, at the G20 meeting in Washington for “the urgent establishment of a joint working group to further consider and develop initiatives in relation to diverted profits by multinational enterprises”.

The Australian press release is clear that any working group initiatives will be consistent with the work of the OECD on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting and intends to build on the experience of the UK’s diverted profits tax which came into operation on 1 April 2015. The working group will be open to all G20 members.