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Australia Introduces Payment Times Reporting Scheme Requirements

The Australian Government has recently introduced Payment Times Reporting Scheme Requirements to improve payment outcomes for small businesses and create transparency in payment practices. The Payment Times Reporting Act 2020 No. 91, 2020 entered into force on 1st January 2021. The Act requires large businesses to submit reports to the payment times reporting regulator.

The scope of large businesses is all those entities who carry on an enterprise in Australia and have a total income of over $100M, either together with its subsidiaries or as part of a global group. Such reports shall include aggregate data on entity’s payment terms and practices (namely the values must be in the local currency, exclusive of GST and to the nearest whole number), company’s identity and shall be signed by either the company’s authorised representative or a representative from the controlling corporation.

The deadline to submit reports is 30th September 2021 provided that the first reporting period ends on 30th June. Should the company fail to comply in a timely manner or provide misleading reporting, it might face from 60 up to 300 penalty units, to be assessed on an ad-hoc basis.