As part of the 2012-13 Budget, the Government announced it would ensure a more consistent tax treatment for bad debts between related parties that are not members of a tax consolidated group. The measure would deny the creditor a tax deduction for a bad debt written-off, where the debtor is a related party. In addition,…
In the 2012-13 Federal Budget, the Government announced it would amend the integrity provisions of the CGT scrip-for-scrip roll-over to remove what it said were significant tax minimisation opportunities. The changes are intended to apply from 7:30pm (AEST) on 8 May 2012. Treasury on Fri 13.7.2012, released a proposals paper designed to form the basis…
The Government has issued further advice about its announcement in the 2012-13 Federal Budget to update the legislation governing the Producer Offset to include a definition of “documentary” and related terms. The Producer Offset offers a refundable tax offset to eligible film and television productions, including documentaries. A “documentary” in this context is a creative…
As part of the 2012-13 Budget, the Government announced that it would phase out the mature age worker tax offset from 1 July 2012 for taxpayers born on or after 1 July 1957. Access to the tax offset would be maintained for taxpayers who are aged 55 years or older in 2011-12. Treasury has released…
The Government has released for comment draft legislation and explanatory material for the tax treatment of water infrastructure improvement payments. In February 2011, the Government had announced that it would eliminate the timing difference between when payments are taxed and when deductions are available for water efficiency investment grants under the Sustainable Rural Water Use…
The Government announced on Fri 6.7.2012, that it had referred the draft Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) legislation to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, for an inquiry over the Winter Parliamentary break (Parliament resumes on 14 August 2012). The Government will then consider any recommendations the Committee makes, before introducing the…
The Shipping Reform (Tax Incentives) Regulation 2012 was registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments on 29 June 2012. Part 1 of the Regulation provides the definitions of each category of seafarer training by reference to the duties performed by 3 categories of crew under the command of the master of the vessel. These…
M o r g a n’ s T a x M o n t h – July 2012 Developments – This is a collection of developments in Australian tax law and practice that occurred in July 2012 and which aims at being of relevance to tax lawyers.* F John Morgan A member of the Victorian…
The Grattan Institute’s new report, Game-changers: Economic reform priorities for Australia, says if Australian governments “are serious about raising rates of economic growth, they must reform the tax mix and increase the workforce participation rates of women and older people”. This could contribute over $70bn per year to economic growth in the next decade, Grattan…
At its meeting on Tue 5.6.2012, the Reserve Bank Board decided to cut official interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.50%, effective 6 June 2012. The Board said that “with modest domestic growth and a weaker and more uncertain international environment, the outlook for inflation afforded scope for a more accommodative stance of monetary…