Key Highlights

  • The Corporate Tax Association-led alliance brings together 27 Business groups.
  • It seeks minimum consultation periods and an independent impact analysis commissioner.
  • The exposure-draft consultation lasted 12 business days, followed by 10 business days for Senate submissions.
  • Treasury and professional bodies use different assumptions and produce substantially different cost estimates.

An alliance of 27 industry associations wants Canberra to slow down and show its working before major tax laws are passed. As the Senate Economics Legislation Committee prepares to report tomorrow on Labor's trust and housing tax bills, the Corporate Tax Association-led group is pushing for minimum consultation periods and an independent Office of Impact Analysis Commissioner. The ask goes beyond the trust tax, but that bill has become its test case.

Who is in the alliance and what it wants

The alliance is led by the Corporate Tax Association and brings together 27 associations, including the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Banking Association and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Two requests stand out. The first is minimum consultation periods for tax legislation, so that businesses and advisers have a set amount of time to review draft laws before they are introduced.

The second is an independent Office of Impact Analysis Commissioner. Impact analysis is the process governments use to estimate the costs and benefits of new regulation, including the compliance burden on business. The alliance's proposal would put an independent figure at the head of that function.

These are proposals, not law. No government response to the specific requests had been reported as of Thursday 12 November.

Why the consultation timeline has become a flashpoint

The trust tax package has given the alliance a live example. The Tax Institute's Julie Abdalla told senators that consultation lasted 12 business days on the exposure draft and 10 business days for Senate submissions.

Abdalla urged senators not to pass Schedules 1–3 of Tax Reform No. 3 until the deferred regulations and legislative instruments are published.

Several key rules are still unwritten. They include the full continuity test for trusts that are not family trusts and parts of the fixed trust definition.

The Tax Institute has also asked for the rollover and election periods to be extended if instruments arrive late, and for a post-implementation review within 12 months. It wants a coordinated national approach to state and territory duties on restructures, noting that federal rollover relief does not cover state stamp duty.

The cost estimate gap at the heart of the push

The alliance's call for a more effective impact analysis watchdog lands in the middle of a dispute over compliance costs.

Treasury's Impact Analysis puts one-off implementation of the trust measures at $939 million, in a range of $780 million to $1.1 billion, plus $48 million a year in ongoing costs. It assumes an average restructure cost of about $11,000, and the $939 million figure excludes state and territory duties.

CPA Australia's Jenny Wong called the $48 million figure a "gross underestimation" at the 5–6 November hearings. Her estimates are one-off advice costs of $2 billion to $2.8 billion and ongoing costs of $221 million to $595 million a year. She said Treasury prices advice at about $91 an hour.

On those figures, CPA Australia's ongoing estimate is roughly 4.6 to 12.4 times Treasury's. CPA Australia says the Capital Gains Tax changes add a further $295 million to $542 million a year.

Master Builders Australia estimates ongoing compliance of $21,000 to $67,500 a year per business, based on reported hearing evidence.

Hypothetical example: what 12 business days and $91 an hour look like

Hypothetical example: a suburban accounting practice has 150 clients with discretionary trusts. An exposure draft is released on a Monday with a 12-business-day consultation window and no public holidays in between.

The window closes on the Tuesday of the third week, 15 calendar days after release. If one partner set aside a full 7.5-hour day for each of those 12 business days, that is 90 hours, or about 36 minutes per trust client to review the draft and model its impact.

Now consider pricing. If a family needs 20 hours of restructuring advice, Treasury's assumed rate of about $91 an hour gives a cost of $1,820. At a hypothetical commercial rate of $250 an hour, the same 20 hours costs $5,000.

These figures are illustrative only. They show why advisers argue that timeframes and assumed hourly rates bear directly on whether official cost estimates are realistic.

The pace of change, and the delay debate

The alliance's push reflects a wider complaint about the Volume of change. LawPath data found that Anthony Albanese has announced 4.1 small business rules a year, the most of any prime minister from 1996 to 2026. Practitioner Dianne Hanna said the pace of change may push some advisers out of the profession.

The profession is not united on what should happen next. CPA Australia's Jenny Wong told the inquiry, "I think a delay would be helpful".

Matthew Addison, until recently COSBOA chair, said a one-year delay would be "a waste of time" without substantial change. Speaking as executive director of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, he called the tax a "blunt instrument" and said existing anti-avoidance rules should be used instead.

Liberal Senator Jane Hume asked at the hearing whether strengthening existing rules, such as section 100A, Division 7A and Part IVA, could do the Job without new red tape.

The government's position is that the reform is needed. Treasury's Laura Berger-Thomson told the inquiry: "Part of the rationale for this reform is to prevent even further growth in these types of structures in our economy." Treasury projects $4.5 billion a year in Revenue by 2029–30.

What to watch: report, vote and key dates

- Friday 13 November 2026: the committee is due to report on Tax Reform No. 3 and the Minimum Tax on Discretionary Trusts Bill. Watch for any recommendation on consultation periods, deferred instruments or impact analysis.

- Third week of November: the government's reported target for Senate passage. Labor needs Greens votes because the Coalition opposes the bill, and no deal had been reported as of today.

- December 2026: MYEFO may revise revenue estimates for the package.

- 1 July 2027: rollover relief for trust restructures is scheduled to open, running to 30 June 2030.

- 1 July 2028: the minimum tax is scheduled to start, if passed.

Whatever happens to the alliance's proposals, the committee's handling of consultation and cost questions will signal how future tax bills may be developed.