Lawyers advising on tax matters have been shut out of the ATO advice service, that they provide to ‘tax agents’ – a thing which the compulsory ‘first layer’ insurer for lawyers, in Victoria: Legal Practitioners Liability Committee (LPLC) thinks is retrograde. They wrote an email (in Aug 2022) to the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV),…
On Monday 7.11.2022, Treasury issued a consultation paper on the Government’s far reaching proposal to implement a public registry of beneficial ownership, which will show who ultimately owns, controls, or receives profits from a company or legal vehicle. This could be one of the biggest regulatory developments in years and be massively intrusive. This will…
The AAT has refused to direct the ATO to produce external legal advice quoted in an audit report. Prompted by a referral from the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (Confiscation Taskforce), the ATO conducted a covert audit of the taxpayer. This resulted in amended assessments for the 2006-2009 and the 2011-2013 income years being issued. In these proceedings,…