The Inspector-General of Taxation (IGT) celebrates 10 years of service to the Australian community this year. Inspector-General Ali Noroozi said this is a landmark for the new breed of specialist scrutineering agencies. “Some scepticism was voiced about the IGT office when it was set up. I think it is fair to say that the office’s…
The Government on Mon 8.4.2013, issued for comment exposure draft legislation and explanatory material proposing to introduce a statutory definition of charity and charitable purpose for the purposes of all Commonwealth legislation as announced in the 2011 Federal Budget. The Government has also released a factsheet summarising the key issues. According to the Government, the…
ASIC says that on Friday, 12 April 2013, it registered the 2,000th auditor as part of the new self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) auditor registration reform. As of Wed 17.4.2013, ASIC said it had registered a total of 2,192 approved SMSF auditors. From 1 July 2013, those wishing to conduct SMSF audits must be registered with ASIC. The regulator recommends…
ASIC Thur 18.4.2013, released a report, SMSFs: Improving the quality of advice given to investors (REP 337), outlining its findings from a review into the quality of advice provided in the self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) sector. The review by ASIC’s SMSF taskforce covered over 100 investor files that were identified as being “higher risk”, eg…
APRA has on Tue 23.4.2013, released for consultation a draft reporting form for the collection of data from APRA-regulation superannuation funds to assist with the benchmarking and evaluation of the SuperStream reforms. In a letter to RSE licensees, APRA noted that the success of SuperStream in improving the efficiency of the superannuation back-office function will…
APRA Mon 22.4.2013, released a letter to RSE licensees setting out its expectations around compliance with the new SuperStream requirements and reduced time limits for completing rollover transactions from 1 July 2013. APRA notes that RSE licensees will generally need to complete superannuation rollover transactions within 3 business days from the date of receipt of a complete…
Treasury on Wed 17.4.2013, issued a proposals paper seeking comments on a proposal to update a number of tax and superannuation thresholds to reflect changes made by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to the frequency of reporting average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE). Last year, the ABS decided that it will only issue AWOTE…
ASIC has announced that it has banned a NSW accountant from providing financial services for 6 years following an ASIC investigation. ASIC said it found the accountant had engaged in dishonest conduct and misleading or deceptive conduct between 2 March 2009 to 29 June 2010 by: making dishonest statements to a client about where their money was to be…
The Federal Court (Logan J) has granted the Commissioner a stay of certain orders made in the Full Federal Court’s August 2012 decision in Unit Trend Services Pty Ltd v FCT [2012] FCAFC 112 until the determination by the High Court of the Commissioner’s application for special leave to appeal, and if special leave to appeal is granted,…
The Federal Court has held that supplies provided by a taxpayer, an Australian travel agent, to non-resident travel agents were subject to GST, as they did not fall within the scope of s38-190 of the GST Act, because the supplies were ultimately provided to non-resident tourists who travelled to Australia. However, the Court held that…