Yearly Archives: 2018

DCT v Morando – No stay order for $1.8m tax debt recovery against ‘bikie’ – despite gruelling facts the taxpayer did not put on sufficient evidence of objection merits or extreme hardship without stay

A taxpayer has been unsuccessful in seeking either an adjournment or stay order for matter involving a $1.8 million tax debt. The facts were these. The tax-related liabilities, the subject of this recovery action resulted from default assessments to the Taxpayer’s 2009 to 2014 tax years, based on an assets betterment approach. The Taxpayer was…

LCR 2018/9 – on ‘downsizer contributions’ to Superannuation Funds – 65+ owners of ‘main residences’ owned for 10 years, selling under post 30.6.18 contracts and making contributions up to $300k within 90 days of settling

On 7 November 2018, the Commissioner issued Law Companion Ruling: LCR 2018/9 on the application of the recently enacted ‘downsizer contributions’ to Superannuation Funds – being contributions of up to $300,000 from the sale of a persons (or their spouses) interest in a main residence. This measure was introduced in Schedule 2 to the Treasury Laws…

Labor Government would give the ATO the power “name and shame” directors of phoenix companies & GSEs in Part IVA (by ‘disallowable instrument’) and apply to ASIC for disqualification of relevant directors

Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh has announced that, if elected, a Labor Government would “name and shame” directors of phoenix companies – those illegally/fraudulently ‘phoenixed’ – where directors and/or others deliberately leave companies unable to pay their obligations to employees and respective governments (which is estimated to cost the Australian economy as much as $5.1…

Inspector-General of Taxation retired, Deputy: Andrew McLoughlin is acting IGT – IGT has absorbed Tax Ombudsman’s role, letting ‘individual’ complains inform the ‘systemic’ and vice versa

On 5 November 2018, Mr Ali Noroozi retired from the role of Inspector-General of Taxation – after having acted for 2 terms of 5 years and having seen in many significant development, but perhaps none less than absorbing the Tax Ombudsman’s role (individual complaints) with its ongoing role, which is investigating and reporting on ‘systemic’…

Tax effect of new accounting standard: AASB17 (IFRS17) for consistent treatment of both life and general insurance contracts – Treasury discussion paper to consider currently different tax treatments

Treasury has released a consultation paper on the tax impacts of implementing the new accounting standard for insurance contracts (AASB17) which provides a consistent accounting treatment of all insurance contracts. AASB17 adopts the new international standard for insurance companies: IFRS17. The tax implications, from a change in accounting standards are as follows. First, the ITAA97…

NSW: Stamp duty rate threshold brackets will be indexed to CPI (see CPI indexing average duty effect over last 30 years)

On Monday 5 Nov 2018, the NSW Treasurer announced that NSW will be the first state or territory in Australia to index Stamp Duty brackets to Consumer Price Index (CPI) guaranteeing everyone in the housing market a fairer deal on future property transactions. He said: “We haven’t seen any significant action on Stamp Duty brackets…

CofT v Pavihi – Federal Court granted the Commissioner an interim injunction, and substituted service, to restrain alleged promotion of illegal early release schemes – involving rollover of benefits to SMSFs for payment outside the ‘payment standards’

The Federal Court has granted the Commissioner an interim injunction to restrain an alleged promoter of an illegal early release scheme from being involved in the establishment of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) and directed that the Commissioner be allowed to serve notice of these proceedings, on the Respondent: Ms Pavihi, by email, as she was…

EE&C Pty Ltd as Trustee for the Tarcisio Cremasco Family Trust v CofT – Deed of settlement effective to contract out of objection rights for taxpayer – no basis for AAT review

In this case, the AAT decided that the terms of a Settlement Deed, which the trustee and the Commissioner executed, prevented the trustee objecting and precluded the AAT reviewing the assessments issued in accordance with that Deed. The taxpayer was the trustee of a family trust. There had been ongoing disputes, audits and negotiations regarding…

Petroleum Rent Resources Tax (PRRT) – Government’s response released – 10 percentage point reduction in ‘exploration’ expenditure uplift & on-shore projects removed from PRRT

On Friday 2 November 2018, the Treasurer released there Government’s final response to the review of the Petroleum Rent Resource Tax (PRRT), commenced in 2016 and conducted by economist: Mike Callaghan. He also issued a Media Release, summarising the result. The PRRT was introduced in 1988 by the Hawke-Keating Labor Government and represented a Federal version…

LCR 2018/8 – Cleaning and courier industries’ new annual contractor reporting obligations – payments from 1 July 2108, first report due 31 July 2019

On Wed 31.10.2018, the ATO released Law Companion Ruling LCR 2018/8 on the recently enacted measure to extend the third party reporting regime to entities in the cleaning and courier industries. The law was amended under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Black Economy Taskforce Measures No. 1) Bill 2018, which became law on 3 October 2018. ABN…