T a x T e c h n i c a l – M o n t h l y N e w s – September 2016 Developments – This is a collection of developments in Australian tax law and practice that occurred in September 2016 which aims to be relevant to tax practitioners.[i] Compiled By F John…
Brussels, 30 August 2016 The European Commission has concluded that Ireland granted undue tax benefits of up to €13 billion to Apple. This is illegal under EU state aid rules, because it allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses. Ireland must now recover the illegal aid. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of…
The ATO has provided a report on compliance outcomes in 2015-16 and focus areas for 2016-17. Speaking at the Tax Institute’s National Superannuation Conference on 25 August 2016, Assistant Commissioner Kasey MacFarlane discussed the following topics: Compliance outcomes in 2015-16 reflect an increasing use of new compliance enforcement tools available to the ATO since 1 July 2014. During the course of 2015-16,…
On 31.8.16, the Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill 2016 was introduced in the House of Reps. It seeks to achieve savings across multiple portfolios to contribute to Budget repair. The Bill would implement measures announced in the 2016-17 Federal Budget and earlier Budget updates. Some of the changes include: Single touch payroll reporting – creates a new reporting framework,…
The NSW Office of State Revenue (OSR) has issued the following Revenue Rulings: Revenue Ruling DUT 045 (Market value and GST). It states that the Chief Commissioner will not accept a valuation as a market valuation if it is expressed to be determined on a GST-exclusive basis, or has been made on that basis, or the…
The Supreme Court of Queensland has held that personal guarantees given by a husband and wife, in relation to an agreement they entered into, with the Commissioner, were binding on the guarantors. They guaranteed that their company would pay its tax debt, by way of instalments. The company defaulted and the guarantors were liable for…
The High Court has released transcripts of its hearings of the taxpayers’ appeal, heard in Canberra, against the decision of the Full Federal Court in Bywater Investments Ltd & Ors v FCT [2015] FCAFC 176 was heard by the High Court on 24 August 2016 (HCATrans 183) and 25 August 2016 (HCATrans 184). The Full Federal Court had dismissed the taxpayers’…
The High Court has released the transcript from the hearing (in Canberra) from the Full Federal Court decision in Blank v FCT [2015] FCAFC 154. The appeal was heard by the High Court on 23 August 2016 (HCATrans 181) and 24 August 2016 (HCATrans 182). The Court reserved its decision. In a majority decision, the Full Federal Court had dismissed the taxpayer’s…
A taxpayer has failed before the AAT to discharge the onus of proving that default assessments issued to him for the 2003 to 2006 income years for over $2m in taxable income were excessive. In doing so, the AAT emphasised that not only did the taxpayer have to prove that the assessments were excessive but, also,…
On 26 August 2016, the national charities regulator: the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), revoked the charity status of 503 charities, for failing to submit their Annual Information Statement after a warning and then failing to lodge for the second consecutive year. In other words, they were all ‘double defaulters’. The consequence of this is…