The Assistant Treasurer on Fri 20.12.2013, announced reforms the Government intends to make to the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) legislation. Senator Sinodinos said the Government supported the principles of FoFA, but considered the previous Government’s reforms went too far, creating unnecessary complexity, imposing significant burdens on industry and reducing the availability and increasing the…
The Government has invited submissions from individuals, businesses and community groups on their priorities for the 2014-15 Budget. In order to allow views to feed into the budget process at an early stage, Senator Sinodinos asked that interested parties lodge submissions as soon as possible, and no later than Friday 31 January 2014. Source: Assistant Treasurer’s media…
The Prime Minister on Wed 18.12.2013, announced that the Government would implement a wide-ranging industry initiative comprising targeted support for regions impacted by the wind-down of Holden’s manufacturing operations by 2017; reviews of the South Australian and Victorian economies; and development of a National Industry Investment and Competitiveness Agenda which will focus on our strengths,…
The House of Reps Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia Committee has commenced an inquiry into the development of Northern Australia. The Committee has been tasked with the role of helping to define the future of Australia’s North. The Committee will consider policies for developing the parts of Australia which lie north of the Tropic of…
On 6 November 2013, the Government announced that the indexation of rates of tobacco excise and excise equivalent customs duty would change to AWOTE, instead of the CPI. It was also announced that the Government would proceed with a series of four 12.5% increases in excise and excise equivalent customs duty for tobacco and tobacco products, scheduled…
The latest edition of Economic Roundup (Issue 2, 2013) released by the Treasury features an article which analyses the structural and cyclical factors affecting past and expected future Australian Government tax receipts. According to the article, entitled Tax-to-GDP: Past and prospective developments, as a share of the economy, taxes are “expected to remain well below…
In his Autumn Statement delivered on Thur 5.12.2013, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced that, from 1 April 2015, CGT will be chargeable on future gains made by non-UK residents that dispose of UK residential property. A consultation on the process will be published in early 2014. The statement provides an update on the…
ASIC said its assessment of advice provided by financial services firms to investors about capital protected products, covered in its Report 377 Review of advice on retail structured products (REP 377) released on Wed 4.12.2013, found many advisers did not make adequate enquiries into their clients’ personal circumstances. Among other things, ASIC found that advisers…
On 25 June 2013, the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs released for public comment a discussion draft on the tax treatment of various payments that may be made following the termination of an employment. The OECD has now published the comments received on this discussion draft, which can be downloaded from the OECD website. Comments were received from several…
Australia officially assumed its one year Presidency of the G20 on Sun 1.12.2013. The G20 leaders will meet in Brisbane in November 2014. As well, there will be 5 Finance Ministers’ meetings in the course of the year, 2 of which will be in Australia, the first in February 2014 in Sydney and one in Cairns later in the…