The Australian Taxation Office has released instructions for completing the public country-by-country report, guiding reporting entities through six sections covering entity information, member entities, jurisdictional reporting, and corrections for reporting periods from 1 July 2024.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released instructions to complete the public country-by-country report on 3 March 2026.
The instructions include:
Overview of Public CBC report instructions and publishing in the approved form. These instructions will help taxpayers complete their Public CBC (Public country-by-country) report if they are a Public CBC reporting parent, “reporting entity” who must publish a report for reporting periods from 1 July 2024 under the Public CBC reporting regime.
Section A: Public CBC report – entity information
How to complete Section A: entity information in the Public CBC report.
This question is mandatory. This defines the type of report that is being submitted, either original or amended. A valid value is “True” or “False”. If “True” is selected, the report contains amended data. This applies only when the original report has already passed validation, and one or more material errors have since been identified that need to be corrected.
A corrected report must be published, marked with a value of “True” at this question to indicate it is an amendment to the original report. If “False” is selected, the report contains original data only. This includes situations where the original report has not yet passed validation. If a Public CBC report is provided that fails validation, the errors must be corrected and the original report re-submitted.
Section B: Public CBC report – member entities and approach to tax
How to complete Section B: member entities and approach to tax in the Public CBC report.
Section B is to identify each of the members of the Public CBC reporting group, including the reporting entity, as well as the approach to tax.
The Public CBC reporting regime allows a partial exemption under certain conditions. A “partial exemption” is a release from some, but not all, of the reporting obligations for a single reporting period. For example, where one or more but not all of the pieces of information do not need to be published, or where all information is exempt for particular jurisdictions only.
Section C: Public CBC report – Australia and specified jurisdictions
How to complete Section C: Australia and specified jurisdictions in the Public CBC report.
Section C seeks information about Australian and specified jurisdictions as outlined in Taxation Administration (Country by Country Reporting Jurisdictions) Determination 2024, of the Public CBC reporting group for which a Public CBC report is being submitted.
Information must be provided for Australia and each specified jurisdiction in the relevant reporting period. A jurisdiction is either a state or a non-state jurisdiction in which a member of the group has operations. Where the activities of several members are within a single jurisdiction, the information for that jurisdiction must be consolidated. The jurisdictional data should represent the combined operations that those members have in that jurisdiction.
Section D: Public CBC report – rest of the world aggregated information
How to complete Section D: rest of the world (aggregated information) in the Public CBC report.
Section D seeks aggregated information regarding the jurisdictions in which the Public CBC reporting group operates that have not been disclosed individually in Section C. Amounts should be added for a cumulative total, and positive and negative amounts should net off if applicable.
If the reporting entity chooses to disclose information on a CBC basis for all jurisdictions in which the Public CBC reporting group operates, no aggregated information disclosure is required. However, if reported on a CBC basis only for Australia and specified jurisdictions, then aggregated information must be published for all other jurisdictions.
Section E: Submitting your Public CBC report
How to complete Section E: submitting your Public CBC report.
The Public CBC report must be prepared and published using the approved form, which is in the XML format. The XML file must conform to the structure, rules and data types defined in the ATO-developed XML Schema. The schema can be downloaded from Public Country-by-Country reporting 2025 specification v2.0External Link. If using a digital service provider (DSP), contact them to confirm whether their software has functionality for preparing and submitting the Public CBC report in the approved form.
Section F: Correcting your Public CBC report
How to make amendments to your Public CBC report and correct material errors.
Material errors must be corrected within 28 days of the reporting entity becoming aware of the error. Whether an error is material is a matter of professional judgment. The relevant accounting standard must be used to determine whether an error in an item, or an aggregate of items is material and must be corrected.
An error is material if not correcting it means information is omitted, misstated, or obscured where this could be reasonably expected to influence the fair presentation of the Public CBC report.
