{"id":"F2024L01123","name":"Taxation Administration (Withholding Variation for Certain Payments to US Resident Entertainers Including Athletes) Legislative Instrument 2024","slug":"taxation-administration-withholding-variation-for-certain-payments-to-us-resident-entertainers-inclu","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":442565,"registerId":"F2024L01123-fast-fetch-1775957541483","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-12","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Taxation Administration (Withholding Variation for Certain Payments to US Resident Entertainers Including Athletes) Legislative Instrument 2024","content":"---\nmeta-content-style-type: text/css\nmeta-content-type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8\n---\n\n?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n\n![Commonwealth Coat of Arms of Australia](image.001.jpeg)\n\n \n\nTaxation Administration (Withholding Variation for Certain Payments to US Resident Entertainers Including Athletes) Legislative Instrument 2024\n\nI, Ben Kelly, Deputy Commissioner of Taxation, make the following legislative instrument.\n\nDated 19 August 2024  \n\n \n\n \n\nBen Kelly\n\nDeputy Commissioner of Taxation\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\n1  Name\n\n2  Commencement\n\n3  Authority\n\n4  Definitions\n\n5  Schedules\n\n6  Withholding variation\n\n7  Payment summary exemption\n\nSchedule 1—Repeals\n\nTaxation Administration Act 1953 – Pay as you go withholding – Variation to remove the requirement to withhold from payments for certain US resident entertainers and sport persons\n\n \n\n1  Name\n\n  This instrument is the Taxation Administration (Withholding Variation for Certain Payments to US Resident Entertainers Including Athletes) Legislative Instrument 2024.\n\n2  Commencement\n\n (1) Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.\n\n \n\n- Commencement information\n- Column 1 Column 2 Column 3\n- Provisions Commencement Date/Details\n- 1. The whole of this instrument The day after this instrument is registered.\n\n\nNote: This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.\n\n (2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.\n\n3  Authority\n\n  This instrument is made under sections 15-15 and 16-180 in Schedule 1 to the Act.\n\n4  Definitions\n\nNote: A number of expressions used in this instrument have the same meaning as in Schedule 1 to the Act. Expressions in Schedule 1 to the Act have the same meaning as in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (see section 3AA of the Act). The following expressions are relevantly defined in section 995-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997:\n\n(a) income year;\n\n(b) financial year;\n\n(c) payment summary;\n\n(d) withholding payment.\n\n  In this instrument:\n\nAct means the Taxation Administration Act 1953.\n\nAustralia and US international tax agreement means the “United States convention”, as defined in section 3AAA of the International Tax Agreements Act 1953.\n\nNote: The text of this agreement is set out in Australian Treaty Series 1983 No. 16 ([1983] ATS 16).\n\nentertainer has the same meaning as in Article 17 of the Australia and US international tax agreement.\n\nNote: Entertainer includes theatrical, motion picture, radio or television artistes, musicians and athletes.\n\nUS means the United States of America.\n\n5  Schedules\n\n  Each instrument that is specified in a Schedule to this instrument is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this instrument has effect according to its terms.\n\n6  Withholding variation\n\n  The amount a payer must withhold from a withholding payment to a payee covered by paragraph (1) of Article 17 of the Australia and US international tax agreement is varied to nil, where:\n\n (a) the payee is an entertainer who is a resident of the US;\n\n (b) the payment is for activities the payee undertakes in Australia as an entertainer; and\n\n (c) the sum of all the payments described in paragraph 6(b) does not exceed 10,000 US dollars, or its equivalent in Australian dollars, for the income year concerned.\n\n7  Payment summary exemption\n\n  A payer is not required to give a payment summary in respect of withholding payments to a payee in a financial year where they have not withheld any amount from those payments because of the operation of this instrument.\n\n \n\n\n\n\nSchedule 1—Repeals\n\nTaxation Administration Act 1953 – Pay as you go withholding – Variation to remove the requirement to withhold from payments for certain US resident entertainers and sport persons\n\n1  The whole of the instrument\n\nRepeal the instrument\n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The instrument remains tightly focused on its original purpose: varying withholding requirements for a specific category of US resident entertainers under the Australia-US tax treaty. The scope has not expanded beyond this narrow, technical adjustment to PAYG withholding rules."},"complexity_factors":["Very short instrument (only 7 substantive sections plus a repeal schedule)","Minimal defined terms (only 4 explicit definitions in section 4, plus references to existing definitions in other Acts)","Single operative provision (section 6) with straightforward three-part test","No nested exceptions or complex conditional logic","Simple cross-referencing (only to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 and the US-Australia tax treaty)","Clear monetary threshold ($10,000 USD) providing bright-line test"],"plain_english_summary":"This instrument lets Australian payers skip withholding tax on payments to US-resident entertainers and athletes for performances in Australia when the total annual payments to a person are USD 10,000 or less (or A$ equivalent). \n\nIt affects Australian businesses that hire US performers and US resident entertainers/athletes with small, short-term gigs, reducing withholding and related reporting for low-value engagements."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"This instrument alters the default PAYG withholding scope by varying the withholding amount to nil for certain payments to US-resident entertainers performing in Australia, subject to a US$10,000 per income year cap (s.6). It also removes the payment-summary obligation where no withholding occurs (s.7). The instrument expressly repeals an earlier variation instrument (Schedule 1), so it replaces the prior instrument’s effect and narrows the immediate withholding obligation for the specified category of payees."},"complexity_factors":["Cross-reference to the Australia–US tax treaty (Article 17) to identify eligible ‘entertainers’ rather than defining eligibility solely within domestic law (s.4, s.6).","Currency-conversion requirement: the USD threshold must be applied or converted to Australian dollars for the income year (s.6(c)).","Interaction with existing PAYG withholding framework and definitions in the Taxation Administration Act 1953 and Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, requiring readers to reconcile multiple statutes (ss.3–4).","Annual aggregation rule: the $10,000 cap applies across the income year, creating monitoring and recordkeeping obligations for payers (s.6(c)).","Administrative consequence for reporting obligations: removal of withholding also removes the payer’s obligation to issue a payment summary for that year where nothing was withheld (s.7).","Repeal of a prior instrument in Schedule 1 requires checking historical instruments to understand net change (Schedule 1)."],"plain_english_summary":"This instrument removes the requirement for Australian payers to withhold PAYG amounts from payments to US-resident entertainers (including athletes) for services in Australia when the entertainer’s total payments for the income year do not exceed US$10,000 (or the AUD equivalent). It also exempts payers from issuing payment summaries when no amounts are withheld. Practically, Australian payers stop deducting tax at source for small-value US entertainer engagements and entertainers receive funds without immediate withholding."},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/taxation-administration-withholding-variation-for-certain-payments-to-us-resident-entertainers-inclu","history":"/api/acts/taxation-administration-withholding-variation-for-certain-payments-to-us-resident-entertainers-inclu/history","analysis":"/api/acts/taxation-administration-withholding-variation-for-certain-payments-to-us-resident-entertainers-inclu/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/taxation-administration-withholding-variation-for-certain-payments-to-us-resident-entertainers-inclu/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/taxation-administration-withholding-variation-for-certain-payments-to-us-resident-entertainers-inclu/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/taxation-administration-withholding-variation-for-certain-payments-to-us-resident-entertainers-inclu/documents"}}