Australia’s proposed 30% Minimum Taxes – Part 2 – Discretionary Trust Issues from Distributions to and from Companies from 1 July 2028

Since the May 2026 release of Australia’s Federal Budget, there has been a more than usual amount of Trans-Tasman friendly rivalry regarding whether New Zealand has a superior tax system. While we notice that New Zealand’s own 39% Discretionary Trust Distribution tax did not feature heavily in these discussions, we’d suggest that lessons can definitely be learned from the New Zealand approach to corporate distributions from discretionary trusts. In this Snapshot, we explain the issues for Australian discretionary trust distributions to and from companies and we provide a comparison to New Zealand’s approach. 

Click here to watch an online recording that explains Australia’s proposed Corporate Beneficiary Rule from 1 July 2028 (and New Zealand’s existing equivalent rule).

Click here to watch an online recording that explains the proposed treatment of franked dividends to discretionary trust shareholders from 1 July 2028.

Click here to read our detailed PDF download about the proposed minimum tax change and the consequences for discretionary trust distributions.

This is Part 2 of a 3-part series concerning the proposed 30% Minimum Tax. Further information is available on our Tax News page in Part 1 (Who is most affected and what might they cost a Small Business Owner?) and Part 3 (CGT Minimum Tax Issues).