The following Tasmanian Bills have passed the Tasmanian House of Assembly and have moved to the Legislative Council: Employment Incentive Scheme (Payroll Tax Rebate) Amendment Bill 2014 – passed without amendment, the Bill proposes to amend the Employment Incentive Scheme (Payroll Tax Rebate) Act 2009 (Tas) to implement a fourth tranche of the payroll tax…
The Qld Budget 2014-15 was handed down on Tue 3.6.2014. Key Budget announcements include: Family primary production business transfer duty concession – from 1 July 2014, the Family Primary Production Concession will be extended. Currently, the concession is limited to lineal descendants, most often this is parent to child. The requirement of a direct lineal descendant will…
The NSW Budget 2014-15 was handed down on Tue 17.6.2014. NSW Treasurer, Andrew Constance, announced the following revenue measures: Stamp duty – business taxes to be abolished – from 1 July 2016, the NSW Government will abolish stamp duty on business mortgages, unlisted marketable securities and transfer duty on non-real business transfers. Enhanced revenue compliance activity –…
The following ACT Bills were introduced into the ACT Legislative Assembly on 5 June 2014: Payroll Tax Amendment Bill 2014 – proposes to amend the Payroll Tax Act 2011 (ACT) to remove the exemption provided to employment agents on wages paid to subcontractors simply due to being a “genuine employer”. By removing the exemption found at Sch 2,…
The Federal Court has dismissed an applicant’s appeal from the decision in AAT Case [2014] AATA 112, Re Ayles and Tax Practitioners Board in which the AAT refused his application for registration as a tax agent on the basis that the applicant did not satisfy the necessary tertiary qualification experience which, according to the AAT,…
The Government has released the Draft Tax Agent Services Amendment (Tax (Financial) Advisers) Regulation 2014 to amend the Tax Agent Services Regulations 2009 which prescribe a tailored set of ongoing registration requirements for tax (financial) advisers, as well as a number of other related amendments. At the same time, the Government has taken this opportunity…
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has reminded financial advisers who provide tax advice that they can notify the Board to be registered as tax (financial) advisers from next month. The TPB said the notification period begins on 1 July 2014 and ends on 31 December 2015. During this notification period, Australian financial services (AFS) licensees and their authorised representatives…
The Inspector-General of Taxation (IGT), Mr Ali Noroozi, on Thur 19.6.2014, commenced a review into the ATO’s management of tax disputes involving large businesses and high wealth individuals (HWIs). Mr Noroozi said on 2 June 2014, the Acting Assistant Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann, referred an inquiry into tax disputes to the House of Reps Standing Committee on…
The ANAO on Tue 24.6.2014, released its report No 50 of 2013-14 Cyber Attacks: Securing Agencies’ ICT Systems. Agencies included in the audit included the ATO, ABS, Customs, and the Australian Financial Security Authority. The report found the agencies subject to audit had established internal information security frameworks, implemented controls designed to safeguard the enterprise…
The ANAO report on the Administration of the Australian Business Register (ABR) was released on Mon 23.6.2014. The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of the administration of the Register. As at 7 May 2014, the ABR held information relating to 10.8 million ABNs, of which 7.7 million were active. The report says there…