The AAT has upheld the Commissioner’s decision refusing to release a taxpayer from his tax debt of $26,045 on the grounds of “serious hardship”. The tax debt arose after the Commissioner denied deductions claimed by the taxpayer under a managed investment scheme promoted by a registered tax agent. The Commissioner granted the taxpayer’s application to…
The AAT has ruled that a taxpayer had failed to discharge the onus of proving that assessments for income totalling over $867,000 deposited into his bank accounts over a 4-year period were not income. The taxpayer argued that the amounts were received as loans or capital from fellow members of an informal syndicate established for…
In a decision handed down on Fri 12.9.2014, the AAT has affirmed a decision of the Commissioner that a payment made to a taxpayer for compensation for domestic assistance was assessable as ordinary income under s 6-5 of the ITAA 1997. In February 1997, the taxpayer’s husband suffered a serious injury while white water rafting during a team…
The AAT has affirmed a decision of the Commissioner to impose on a taxpayer a 50% administrative penalty of the tax shortfall amount on the basis of “recklessness”. The taxpayer was a carpenter by trade. The Commissioner audited the taxpayer in relation to his BASs for the period 1 January 2007 to 30 June 2010 and found he had…
The AAT has allowed most of a taxpayer’s claims for R&D expenditure at the 125% rate, but disallowed other claims in respect of overlapping expenditure. Between 2003 and 2007, the taxpayer undertook R&D, conducted by way of plant trials, to test various possible improvements to its copper and lead concentrators and its copper smelter. Many…
The Commonwealth Ombudsman, Mr Colin Neave, appeared before the Federal Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue on Wed 24.9.2014 to discuss complaints made to his office on tax disputes. The Ombudsman has identified the following areas of concern: 1.the ATO’s engagement with taxpayers prior to litigation; 2.perceptions of a power imbalance between the ATO…
The AAT has affirmed that a taxpayer was liable to CGT on a settlement payment of $350,000 made to her in respect of litigation she pursued for damages for breach of contract and negligence. In particular, the AAT found that CGT event C2 applied to the payment, and that the CGT assets in question were…
The Full Federal Court has unanimously dismissed the taxpayer’s appeal from the decision in Task Technology Pty Ltd v FCT [2014] FCA 38 and confirmed that licensing payments by the taxpayer company (an Australian distributor) to a Canadian software supplier were not excluded from being royalties that were subject to Australian withholding tax. The taxpayer…
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) Thur 11.9.2014, released its paper Future of Tax: Australia’s Current Tax System. It is the first in a series of papers that the BCA will release in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Government’s tax white paper reform process. The BCA says its paper presents a platform for discussion and…
The Treasurer has announced that the Cairns meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors has agreed to modernise global tax rules and close gaps that have emerged in recent years. He said the meeting endorsed the automatic exchange of tax information on a reciprocal basis using a Common Reporting Standard (CRS), as…