Perpetual Corporate Trust Ltd v Commissioner of State Revenue –  student accommodation exempt from SA land transfer duty – 1 semester stays too short to be ‘residential’ (GST meaning adopted)

Tax Month - February 2022

On 25 January 2022, the South Australian Supreme Court decided that purpose-built student accommodation facility was not used predominantly for residential purposes and therefore qualified for a stamp duty exemption. The Court used the GST case of Marana Holdings, to interpret ‘residential’ and ‘reside’ having some permanence or long-term nature. The facts were these. In September 2019…

Section 100A and Division 7A: looking back down the path to the ATO’s imminent new draft guidance (for consultation)

Tax Month - February 2022

The word is that next week (beginning 21.2.22), the ATO will release draft guidance on the anti-trust stripping s100A and the dreaded ‘deemed dividend’ provisions in Division 7A. We expect the following, for public consultation: (1) Draft Ruling on s100A; (2) Draft PCG on s100A; and Draft Determination on Division 7A. In the Tax Institute’s weekly member new email: TaxVine…

Mobbs v CofT – Payments and shares issued to a company providing individual’s services as a director, treated as individual’s income

Tax Month - February 2022

On 10 February 2022, the AAT decided that payments made by various entities, to a service company, for the individual’s services, as a director, were ordinary income of the individual (and not the service company). It reached a similar conclusion about shares that these entities, issued to the service company, to satisfy the invoices. The…

ZG Operations v Jamsek – on the same day the High Court reached the opposite conclusion to the CFMEU case (on an ’employee/contractor’ issue) but for the same ‘primacy of contract’ reasons

Uncategorized

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA – On the same day (9.2.22), the High Court handed down two decisions, both allowing appeals from the Full Federal Court (FFC), on questions of whether a person was an employee or an Independent Contractor – for the purposes of claiming worker entitlements, which were available, if they were employees. The…

Budget super measures and temporary full expensing of capital expenses – Bill passed

Tax Month - February 2022

On 10 September 2022, the Senate passed the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Superannuation Outcomes For Australians and Helping Australian Businesses Invest) Bill 2021 with no amendments. It therefore awaits assent. The Bill passes various Budget Superannuation measures, to encourage superannuation contributions, and a temporary extension of the measures to allow capital expenses to be deductible in…

Employee vs independent contractor: High Court rules contract is the source of the analysis (not subsequent conduct)

Tax Month - February 2021

In the High Court CFMEU v Personnel Contracting case (see related TT article), the Court held that the characterisation of a relationship, as that of an employee or an independent contractor, is answered by considering the rights and obligations as set out in the written contract (unless the contract is challenged as a sham or its…

CFMEU (and contractor) v Personal Contracting Pty Ltd – High Court holds contractor was an ’employee’ (despite ‘contractor’ label) but basis for this finding was ‘seismic’

Tax Month - February 2021

On 9 February 2020 the High Court held that an individual was the employee of a labour hire company (not a contractor, as described in his contract with that company). However the High Court did this on a basis that could be described as seismic, when it comes to the ’employee’ v’s ‘independent contractor’ definition…

Tax deductibility of COVID-19 test expenses – what is the existing law and are the proposed ITX and FBT changes necessary (yes)

Tax Month - February 2022

On 11.2.22, the Tax Institute emailed members (in TaxVine 3) the views of their Senior Advocate: Robyn Jacobson, CTA, on the existing laws about the interlocking income tax and FBT treatment, of the costs of COVID-19 tests and the necessity of the recently announced changes to the law. They are to ensure the deductibility of…

ATO releases long awaited new guidelines for professional firms but uncertainty remains for many – PCG 2021/4

Tax Month - February 2022

Four years after suspending their guidelines relating to the allocation of profits of professional firms, the Australian Taxation Office (“ATO”) released PCG 2021/4 (“Guidelines”) setting out its revised compliance approach. The Guidelines provide for a “traffic light style” risk assessment framework containing three risk factors that allow certain professionals to self-assess their risk of ATO compliance…