Appendix 4: Activity codes

1

Administrative services

Activities that relate to an entity's operations but excluding activities relating to financing and production. These activities include:

• management services
• back office services
• administrative services associated with recharge amounts
• accounting
• accounting services
• IT support services
• human resources
• legal services.

2

Advisory services

Activities involving the provision and receipt of professional advice where a fee is paid for the advice, including:

• consultancy activities
• investment advice
• legal advice.

3

Asset management

Activities associated with the management of assets, funds or investments. This will be undertaken on a discretionary basis in accordance with an investment strategy, with the entity responsible for:

• acquiring, monitoring, managing and disposing of traditional and alternate financial products held by the taxpayer or a related party
• assessing, monitoring and managing the market risks associated with holding these financial products.

4

Borrowing and lending

Activities involving the generation of internal and external funding.

5

Brokerage

Activities involving the mediation between a buyer and a seller, occurring in a range of products, including:

• mortgages, where brokers act as intermediaries to sell mortgage loans on behalf of individuals or businesses
• commodities, where brokers execute orders to buy or sell commodity contracts on behalf of clients
• investment, where brokers act as intermediaries between investment buyers and sellers.

6

Cash and trade services

Activities involving the facilitation of fund transfers and the exchange of goods and services, including:

• cash management systems (payment processing systems)
• foreign exchange clearing services
• trade settlements
• letters of credit (trade, insurance and export).

7

Construction

All construction activities including residential and commercial construction and the construction of utilities and infrastructure.

8

Custody and transaction clearing services

Custody is all activities that are associated with the safekeeping of securities for customers, also includes the collection of dividends, interest and proceeds from securities sales.

Transaction clearing are all activities associated with the management of post-trading, pre-settlement credit exposures, to ensure that trades are settled in accordance with market rules, including:

• reporting and monitoring
• risk margining
• netting of trades to single positions.

9

Derivatives

Activities undertaken in respect of derivatives (a financial instrument derived from some other asset, index, event, value or condition). The overall derivatives market has 5 major classes of underlying asset:

• interest rate derivatives (for example, interest rate swaps or options)
• foreign exchange derivative (for example, currency swaps or options)
• credit derivatives (for example, credit default swaps or options)
• equity derivatives (for example, equity swaps or warrants)
• commodity derivatives (for example, commodity swaps or gold options).

10

Distribution and sale of goods

Goods purchased by a distributor from an international related party.

11

Financing activities

Activities involving dealings in financial instruments that would qualify as financial assets or financial liabilities under relevant Australian accounting standards or comparable foreign accounting standards but excludes financial instruments that would meet the definition of a derivative. At the time of this publication, the 2 key Australian accounting standards relevant to this question are:

• AASB 132 Financial Instruments: Presentation
• AASB 139 Financial Instruments: Recognition and measurement.

The relevant amounts may be reported in the financial statements as revenue and gains or expenses and losses, depending on the accounting treatment of your relevant financial assets and financial liabilities (this includes amounts relating to hedging items that are classified in the financial statements as financial assets or financial liabilities). Therefore, for the purposes of this activity code:

• expenditure and losses are interchangeable
• revenue and gains are interchangeable.

12

Guarantees

Activities associated with contracts under which a party agrees to perform an obligation or discharge a liability of another entity should that entity fail to do so.

13

Insurance and reinsurance

Insurance and reinsurance activities include general insurance, life insurance and health insurance.

14

Leasing

Activities that relate to agreement between 2 parties under which one is granted the right to use the property of the other for a specified period of time in return for a series of payments by the user to the owner.

15

Licensing or transfer of intellectual property

Activities involving an intellectual property rights owner (licensor) and another entity which is given authorisation to use these rights (licensee) in exchange for an agreed payment (fee or royalty). This includes activities involving:

• technology license agreements
• trademark licensing agreements
• copyright license agreements
• trademark license agreements
• franchise agreements
• sales or purchase of IP.

16

Logistics

Activities associated with the managing of a commercial organisation’s supply chain that supports the sourcing, timing and movement of goods and services, including:

• shipping
• transport
• storage
• procurement and sourcing
• freight
• scheduling.

17

Manufacturing and sale of goods

Activities involved in the sale of goods created by a manufacturing process (excluding agriculture).

18

Media, telecommunications and information services

With regard to media and information services, activities associated with the creation, collation, dissemination and distribution of content via:

• television
• radio
• newspapers, journals or magazines (hardcopy and equivalent electronic versions)
• books (both hardcopy and equivalent electronic versions)
• CD and DVD
• internet
• other information and communication channels.

With relation to Telecommunications, activities associated with the operation, management, maintenance and sale of access to telecommunications infrastructure and networks including:

• telephony
• fax or data
• digital cable and satellite television
• internet.

19

Primary production or extraction and sale of goods

Activities involved in the sale of physical products that have resulted from:

• the growing of crops, raising of animals, growing and harvesting of timber
• the extraction of naturally occurring    
  • mineral solids such as coal and ores
  • liquid minerals such as crude petroleum, and
  • gases such as natural gas.
   

20

Purchase and distribution of goods

Goods sold by a distributor to an international related party.

21

Purchase and manufacture of goods

Activities associated with the purchase of goods to be used in a manufacturing process (excluding agriculture).

23

Retail trade

Activities associated with the retail trade of all goods classifications to end customers through a shopfront or e-commerce website.

24

Sales and marketing services

Sales services include:

• provision of services to facilitate the sale of goods or services
• transaction, investment and information services carried out on behalf of customers relating to the customer’s securities, financial assets, financial liabilities, portfolios and/or other assets.

Marketing services include:

• activities that involve acquiring new customers or businesses and maintaining a relationship with them, including    
  • advertising
  • brand promotion
  • sales strategies
  • customer support services.
   

25

Securitisation services

Activities involving the packaging of an income by the party entitled to it and the subsequent sale of such income stream to investors.

26

Software and information technology services

Activities involved in the support and maintenance of software and technology used by the taxpayer. Activities relating to the ownership of the software and technology are excluded, such as leasing and rental fees.

27

Superannuation

Activities associated with providing, funding or offering investment strategies for financial security upon retirement.

28

Technical services

Activities involving:

• engineering
• project management
• R&D
• exploration.

29

Toll manufacturing services

Activities involved with the provision of manufacturing services for a fee or price per unit payment, where the manufacturing entity does not take legal title to the inventory or finished goods.

30

Treasury related services

Activities involved in the managing of the taxpayer's financial operations, including:

• transaction, investment and information services relating to securities, financial assets, financial liabilities, portfolios and other assets held by yourself or an international related party
• risk management systems development and review
• the management of currencies and cash flows
• complex strategies, policies and procedures relating to the taxpayer finance.

31

Underwriting services

Activities involved in measuring risk exposure and determining the premium that needs to be charged to insure the risk, including:

• securities underwriting (underwriter assumes risk in bringing the issue to market by guaranteeing the issuer will receive a certain price when the offering is sold to investors)
• bank underwriting (underwriting is the detailed credit analysis preceding the granting of a loan, based on credit information furnished by the borrower).

Insurance underwriting should be reported under activity code 13 – insurance and reinsurance.

32

Utilities and infrastructure

Activities associated with the operation and management of utilities (for example, electricity, gas, water, sewerage) and infrastructure (for example, roads, rail, airports, seaports).

99

Other

All other activities not listed above