Stapled structures – Integrity conditions for transitional rules and infrastructure concession

On 28 June 2018, the Government released a policy paper for public consultation on the additional integrity rules that will apply to stapled entities that access the infrastructure concession and/or transitional arrangements. 

The Government has today released for public consultation exposure draft legislation and explanatory material giving effect to the announced measures.

The conditions include:

• The extension of existing integrity rules that apply to Managed Investment Trusts (MITs) to ensure that all staples eligible for the transition rules or the infrastructure concession are required to comply with the existing non arm’s length income rule; and
• The introduction of statutory caps on the amount of cross-staple rent that is able to access the concessional 15 per cent rate of withholding tax (available under the MIT regime) for economic infrastructure projects during the transition or concession period.