This Draft Ruling, released on Wed 23.5.2012, gives the ATO’s views on who is the “employer” for the purposes of the short-term visit exception under the Income from Employment Article, or its equivalent, of Australia’s tax treaties. Under Australia’s tax treaties, the general rule is that employment income is taxed in the Contracting State of…
This Draft TR, issued on Wed 9.5.2012, provides Commissioner’s preliminary views on the operation of capital allowance rules in Div 40 of the ITAA 1997 to open pit mine site improvements. Broadly, the Draft defines an “open pit mine site improvement” and indicates that the improvement is a depreciating asset. Further, the Draft also sets…
MT 2012/3, issued on Wed 9.5.2012, outlines the Commissioner’s interpretation of s 284-225 of Sch 1 to the TAA and the circumstances under which a penalty will be reduced. It also provides guidelines on how the Commissioner may exercise his discretion. The Ruling replaces Miscellaneous Taxation Ruling 2008/3, which was withdrawn from 7 September 2011…
The ATO has issued a Decision Impact Statement on the AAT decision in AAT Case [2011] AATA 298, Re The Retirement Village company and FCT. In that case, a taxpayer who purchased a retirement village and paid “Share Of Capital Appreciation Payments” to residents who terminated their leases was successful in arguing before the AAT…
The ATO on Wed 16.5.2012, released a Decision Impact Statement on the Full Federal Court’s decision in Allen (Trustee), in the matter of Allen’s Asphalt Staff Superannuation Fund v FCT [2011] FCAFC 118. That decision upheld an earlier finding that a $2.5m capital gain distributed from a fixed trust to a super fund was “special…
Sent v FCT– Taxpayer appeals to Full Federal Court the decision that bonuses paid into an executive share trust were derived as ordinary income [C3] The taxpayer has appealed to the Full Federal Court against the decision of Murphy J in [2012] FCA 382. The Federal Court had dismissed the taxpayer’s appeal and held that…
The AAT has held that payments for private health insurance provided to employees by a taxpayer for the 2010 FBT year were not exempt benefits as the expenditure was not “in respect of” work-related medical screening or work-related preventative health care under s 58M of the FBTAA. The taxpayer operated a major road transport business…
The Full Federal Court has unanimously dismissed the taxpayer’s appeal from the decision in Cameron v FCT [2011] FCA 1378 (see 2011 LTN 240 [11]) and confirmed that the AAT had not originally erred in finding that the taxpayer failed the “unrelated clients” test for the purposes of the Personal Service Income rules in Div…
In the 2012 Federal Budget, the Government announced that the method of determining the taxable value of airline transport fringe benefits will be changed from stand-by value to market value. The changes are proposed to apply to benefits provided after 7.30pm (AEST) on 8 May 2012. An airline transport fringe benefit may arise when an…
The Assistant Treasurer has announced that the introduction of Not-for-profit (NFP) sector reforms concerning the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) will be staged to allow organisations to transition to the new regulatory framework. The ACNC will commence operations from 1 October 2012 as previously announced, however the governance standards, including the external conduct standards,…