The following Bills received Royal Assent [on Thursday 5.3.2015]: Tax Laws Amendment (Research and Development) Bill 2013 – Assent as the Tax Laws Amendment (Research and Development) Act 2015, Act No 13 of 2015. As originally introduced on 14 November 2013, the Bill had proposed to limit access to the R&D tax incentive to companies with an aggregated assessable…
The Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No 7) Bill 2014 and Excess Exploration Credit Tax Bill 2014 have now both passed all stages without amendment and await Royal Assent. The Measures No 7 Bill contains amendments re: Inspector-General of Taxation to hear tax complaints; CGT exemption for compensation and insurance; Super excess non-concessional contributions – option to…
The Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No 5) Bill 2014 was passed by the Senate [on Mon 2.3.2015] with 4 Opposition amendments and the House of Reps [on Tue 3.3.2015] agreed to those amendments. The Bill now effectively awaits Royal Assent. The amendments made by the Senate included: removing Sch 2 to the Bill, which had proposed abolition of the…
M o r g a n’ s T a x M o n t h – March 2015 Developments – This is a collection of developments in Australian tax law and practice that occurred in March 2015 and which aims at being of relevance to tax lawyers.* F John Morgan A member of the Victorian…
The Corporations Amendment (Register of Relevant Providers) Regulation 2015 was registered [on Mon 16.2.2015]. It makes a number of amendments to the Corporations Regulations 2001 to establish a register of all financial advisers. The purpose of the Regulation is to create a register of all natural persons who provide personal advice on more complex products…
Treasury [on Wed 25.2.2015] issued for comment an options paper on proposed reforms to strengthen Australia’s foreign investment framework, particularly around residential real estate and agriculture. The proposed reforms include: increasing compliance and enforcement activities around foreign investment in residential real estate through the creation of a specialised investigative and enforcement area within the Tax…
To improve the scrutiny of foreign purchases of agricultural land, the Prime Minister has announced the Government will reduce the screening threshold from $252m to $15m from 1 March 2015. The new id=”mce_marker”5m screening threshold will apply to the cumulative value of agricultural land owned by the foreign investor, including the purposed purchase. The Government will also…
The ACT Revenue Office has issued Revenue Circular PTA074.4 regarding payroll tax exemptions for employment agents. The Circular took effect from 1 January 2015, following removal of the “genuine employer” exemption. [LTN 23, 5/2/15/15]
The [taxpayer] Mr Teissier made an application under s 40(1) of the Taxation Administration Act 2003 (WA) for the Tribunal to review a decision made by the Commissioner to reassess particular lots owned by him for land tax. Those lots had previously been assessed as being exempt from tax. The taxpayer sought orders that the…
A taxpayer has been successful before the Qld Supreme Court in a land rich duty matter concerning whether, at the relevant time, a corporation’s land-holdings included its interest in mining leases granted under the Mineral Resources Act 1989 (Qld). The taxpayer acquired 51% of the issued shares in the subject corporation on 20 December 2010. At that…