‘Life-style’ assets insurance – ATO data matching from insurance companies and others

The Commissioner has Gazetted a notice that he will acquire details of insurance policies for certain classes of assets, including marine vessels, enthusiast motor vehicles, thoroughbred horses, fine art and aircraft where the value exceeds nominated thresholds for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years. The ATO said it will obtain policy holder identification details (names, addresses, phone…

LCG 2016/D1 – GST: how to apply the new test for carrying on an ‘enterprise’ in Australia – to be introduced by the 2016 Measures No. 1 Bill

The ATO, on Mon 15.2.2016, issued Draft Law Companion Guideline LCG 2016/D1 (GST and carrying on an enterprise in the indirect tax zone (Australia)). It describes how the Commissioner plans to apply the proposed new GST test for carrying on an enterprise in the indirect tax zone (ie Australia). This test is contained in the Tax and Superannuation…

Cable & Wireless Australia & Pacific Holding BV (in liquidatie) v FCT – Dividend WHT was not refunded as paid by mistake – the part of $6.2b Optus share buy-back debited to a ‘buy-back reserve’ was a Div 16K ‘dividend’ because that reserve was not a ‘share capital account’

The Federal Court has denied a taxpayer a refund of $452,452,013 which had been withheld as dividend withholding tax from the consideration paid to the taxpayer for its shares in Optus. The dispute concerned an amount of $3.9 billion debited to an account described as a “buyback reserve account” in the ledger of Cable &…

Exploration Development Incentive’s first year in operation: 84 Applications; $70m in greenfields expenditure & $21m in credits – Assistant Treasurer’s press release

The Assistant Treasurer: The Hon Kelly O’Dwyer, together with the Minister for Resources (and the former Asst Treasurer): The Hon. Josh Frydenberg, issued a joint press release that said the following. The recently released results for the first year of the Government’s $100 million Exploration Development Incentive (EDI) highlight its broad use in new exploration.…

PAYG withholding varied to ‘nil’ for various payments to religious practitioners – legislative instrument gazetted

A Legislative Instrument was gazetted on 12 February 2016 that varies to nil the amount of withholding required by a payer under the PAYG withholding system for allowance payments, payments made for locum services, and payments made by non-religious entities to religious practitioners, in a certain class of cases. It also removes the requirement to issue payment summaries and…

Labor Tax policy includes: halving CGT discount (to 25%) & limiting negative gearing on post 1 July 2017 acquisitions to new housing

In an announcement on Saturday, 13 February 2016, Labor Leader Bill Shorten released Labor’s “Funding Health & Education – and Balancing the Budget” policy. The policy proposes to: Limit negative gearing to new housing from 1 July 2017. All current investments – and any made before this date – will not be affected by this change and will be fully grandfathered.…

Tax incentive for ‘early stage investors’ – 20% non-refundable off-set up to $200,000pa & CGT exemption after 3 year then uplift after 10 years

Treasury put up, on its website, the following explanation of the tax incentive for ‘early stage investors’ announced in the Innovation Statement on 7 December 2015. Tax incentive for ‘early stage investors’ – what is it? The Government has announced that it will introduce a tax incentive for startup investors which will provide concessional tax…

‘Early stage investors’ tax incentives (announced in the ‘Innovation’ statement) – Treasury releases consultation paper

On 15 February 2016, Treasury released a consultation paper on the tax incentives for ‘early stage investors’, with the following preamble. “On 7 December 2015, the Government announced the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA), including new tax incentives for early stage investors. The tax incentives will provide concessional tax treatment for investors through a non-refundable…

Vic land tax: Colosseum Pty Ltd v Comr of State Revenue – 107 acres of land in greater Melbourne not ‘primarily’ used primary production because ‘landfill’ outweighed cropping and grazing business

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found that the scale of a taxpayer’s cropping and grazing activities was not sufficient for the taxpayer to qualify for the primary production land tax exemption. The taxpayer was the trustee of a trust which held 107 hectares of land in greater Melbourne. Part of the land was…