At his address to the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland on Thur 23.1.2014, the Prime Minister spoke of the need for efficient smaller governments, profitable private businesses, and he also commented on Australia’s role as Chair of the G20 this year and what he would like see agreed on taxation in the globalised…
The CPI indexation factor, which is used for FBT purposes concerning remote area benefits (under ss 60 and 60AA of the FBTAA), for the December quarter 2013 increased 0.8 from the September 2013 quarter to 104.8. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said inflation was running at 2.7% through the year to 31 December 2013 (up from 2.2% through the year…
The Federal Government has granted a request from the National Commission of Audit to extend its reporting date for the phase one report by up to 2 weeks. The Government originally asked the group to deliver its recommendations in a short time frame by 31 January 2014. The Treasurer said the Commission has advised the Government that…
The Victorian State Revenue Office (SRO) has issued Revenue Ruling DA.026 (version 2) (Aggregation of dutiable transactions and the exception from aggregation for domestic builders where residential premises are to be constructed). The SRO says the Ruling has been updated to reflect the amendments made by the State Taxation Acts Amendment Act 2012 (Vic) to…
Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings on Thur 16.1.2014, announced that the State Election will be held on Saturday, 15 March 2014. The Premier has also terminated the ALP’s agreement with the Australian Greens and will withdraw the Greens commission as Ministers in the Tasmanian Government from Fri 17.1.2014. The Premier said the ALP will not enter into a…
The Federal Office of Best Practice regulation on Wed 15.1.2014, released its findings into post-implementation reviews conducted by Treasury into: The non-commercial loss provisions introduced following the 2009-10 Budget announcement. FBT: changes to the statutory formula method for determining the taxable value of car fringe benefits ie applying a single 20% rate. Better targeting concessions…
The Assistant Treasurer on Wed 29.1.2014, released for public consultation draft regulations and legislation (and accompany explanatory materials) to enact the Government’s announced reforms to the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) regime. Senator Sinodinos said although the Government was supportive of the FoFA principles, the previous Government’s reforms were “unwieldy, burdensome and unnecessarily complex”. He…
The NSW Government has urged businesses and individuals to check if they are entitled to any of the “forgotten” millions held by the NSW Office of State Revenue (OSR). The Government said the OSR is holding more than 289,000 items of unclaimed money worth around id=”mce_marker”38m. Unclaimed money could be from deceased estates, dividends, bonds,…
The ACT Revenue Office has issued Revenue Circular DAA013 (General insurance duty adjustments). As part of the ACT’s taxation reform measures, the amount of duty charged on general insurance is being abolished progressively over 5 years. Duty will be reduced by 20% each year until 1 July 2016, when the duty rate for insurance premiums will reduce…
The WA State Administrative Tribunal has held that a property owned by a taxpayer was used principally for a rural business and therefore exempt from land tax for the 2008-09 to 2011-12 financial years. The taxpayer was the owner of a plant nursery business. The Commissioner had until June 2011 exempted one of the taxpayer’s places of…