The Federal Government has introduced legislation before Parliament that will aim to provide incentives for infrastructure projects.

Among a range of tax measures, the legislation will maintain the value of eligible infrastructure project losses over time and exempts losses and bad debts from the utilisation tests.

“A major disincentive to private investment in nationally significant projects is long lead times between incurring deductible expenditure in the construction phase through to earning income in the operational phase,” Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said.

Other measures introduced in the Tax Laws Amendment (2013 Measures no. 2) Bill 2013 include:

  • exemption from income tax payments made to individuals under the Defence Abuse Reparation Scheme
  • removal of the 50 per cent CGT discount for foreign resident and temporary resident individuals on taxable Australian property, such as real estate and mining assets.
  • the specific listing of five new organisations as DGRs: United Way Australia, Australian Neighbourhood Houses & Centres Association (ANHCA), the Australia Foundation in support of Human Rights Watch Limited, Layne Beachley – Aim for the Stars Foundation Limited, Aurora Education Foundation Limited, and the indefinite extension of the specific listing as DGRs for two organisations: Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation and Charlie Perkins Scholarship Trust.