On 3 August 2020, the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) posted an article pointing to it’s decision to terminate the registration of at tax agent: Mr Duncan Bell, for not complying with his own tax affairs (this decision was upheld in the AAT, in a decision made on 14 July 2020 and reported on 23 July…
In two related cases, the Federal Court has held that, when an unregistered individual provides ‘tax agent services’ (or BAS services) on behalf of an unregistered company, which charges a fee, the individual also contravenes the Tax Agents Services Act 2009 (TASA), having also provided the services for ‘fee or other reward’. See below for…
The AAT found that a lump sum, the taxpayer had been a director of various companies, which went into liquidation, and various claims were brought against him, including for allowing the companies to trade whilst insolvent. The taxpayer paid a lump sum to settle all these claims, but the AAT found the amount was not…
In Dapper Coelho v CofT, the AAT has decided that 4 working holiday makers who were present in Australia for more than 183-days during the income year were not tax residents of Australia, because their usual place of abode was outside of Australia and they did not intend to take up residence here. See below…
The Tax Institute’s Senior Advocate: Robyn Jacobson published her ‘Report’ entitled JobKeeper 2.1: a nimble response, in the Institute’s Friday publication: TaxVine (No. 31 on 14.8.20). This tracks the most recent changes to JobKeeper, prompted largely by the ‘2nd Wave’ of COVID-19 in Victoria and the introduction of severe ‘Stage 4’ restrictions here – badly damaging…
On 6.8.20, the Full Federal Court has allowed the ATO’s appeal against a decision that the so-called “backpacker tax” did not apply to a British national who was a tax resident of Australia because of a non-discrimination clause in the Australia-UK DTA. See below for further details. [Tax Month – August 2020] The…
On Friday 7.8.20 the Australian Financial Review’s reporters Hanna Wootton and Edmund Tadros posted an article entitled Age retirement partners rule is illegal: experts. It assesses the future of age based requirements for partners in professional forms to retire at certain ages, in wake of the recent claim by a former Deloitte partner, forced to retire…
On Friday 7.8.20, the Australian Financial Review posted an article by its Senior Writer: neil Chenoweth, entitled GE settled ATO audit for $273m in UK ‘tax fraud’ case. It involves a 4 day $4.9b loan with interest ‘triple-dipped’ in the US, UK and Australia before declaring tax free profits in Luxembourg. See below for details. [Tax…
In Kandor v CofT, the AAT decided that Super contributions, which a taxpayer mistakenly directed her employer to make, from after-tax salary, rather than from pre-tax salary, were assessable to her and that the AAT did not have the power to correct her mistake. This was a 31 July 2020 decision reported on 5 August 2020.…
Robyn Jacobson CTA, Senior Advocate for The Tax Institute wrote a broadcast email to Institute Members saying: “The nation is reeling from the current situation in Victoria. As Senior Advocate at The Tax Institute, I am reaching out to assure you that our tax community remains connected and strong, and to keep you informed on the targeted…