Trust insolvency regime reform: Treasury consultation

On Friday 15.10.2021, our Federal Treasury released a consultation paper entitled Clarifying the application of corporate trusts in insolvency. Following insolvency reforms which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Government is now exploring further insolvency reform where the treatment of trusts under corporate insolvency law has been identified as one area for improvement. The Government…

ASIC extends COVID-19 relief for financial advice – 20 days ‘Record of Advice’ extension now until 15 April 2022

ASIC has further extended its temporary COVID-19 relief for financial advice with the ASIC Corporations(Amendment) Instrument 2021/848. The Record of Advice (RoA) relief has been extended until 15 April 2022 to allow financial advisers to continue to provide a RoA, rather than a statement of advice (SoA), to existing clients requiring financial advice due to COVID-19. ASIC has…

Corporate insolvency reforms: draft regulations released

On 14.10.21, Treasury has released the Exposure Draft – Treasury Laws Amendment (Corporate Insolvency Reforms Consequentials) Regulations 2021 proposing to make consequential amendments to support the insolvency reforms that commenced on 1 January 2021. The corporate insolvency reforms support small businesses by reducing the costs of external administration and the compliance burden for insolvency practitioners. The purpose of the…

TD 2021/D5- ESS: meaning of “genuine disposal conditions” and deferred taxing point rules

On Thursday 14.10.2021, the ATO released Draft TD 2021/D5 Income tax: when are you genuinely restricted from immediately disposing of an interest provided under an employee share scheme? It addresses the operation of the deferred taxing point rules for rights obtained under an employee share scheme (“ESS”). Under Div 83A of ITAA 1997, amounts relating to…

Steer v AMP – Super trustee breached duty to deceased member in cancelling life insurance under ‘opt-in’ requirements – emailed notice never received

The SA District Court has ruled that a superannuation trustee breached its duty to act in the best interest of a deceased member as it failed to give proper notice of the proposed cancellation of her life insurance benefits. The applicant, as the executor for the estate of the deceased member, made a claim for $259,721…

TDs 2021/D2-D4 – Aggregation rules: partnerships, foreign hybrids, non-entity JVs, CLPs, interposed public entities

On Wed 13.10.202], the ATO issued 3 Draft Determinations to assist mainly large businesses in applying the aggregation rules in Subdiv 328-C ITAA 1997 (meaning of small business entity). These rules form part of the aggregated turnover test, used to determine eligibility for a range of tax concessions. Draft TD 2021/D2 – considers how the aggregation rules…

TD 2021/7 – Aggregated turnover test: connected entities with differing year ends – two part years have to be recalculated (silly?)

On Wed 13.10.2-21, the ATO issued TD 2021/7, which considers the operation of the aggregated turnover test in Subdiv 328-C ITAA 1997 (meaning of small business entity) where a connected entity or affiliate has a different accounting period to the taxpayer calculating its aggregated turnover. The aggregated turnover test (s 328-115) is used to determine…

ASIC releases updated information about the distribution of superannuation products

On  Friday 15.10.21, ASIC today released updated information for employers and trustees about changes affecting the distribution of superannuation products as a result of recent law reforms (see ‘Background’ below). Employers have an obligation to ensure that superannuation guarantee contributions are paid on time to their employees’ superannuation fund of choice. Employers – ASIC’s Information Sheet…