The Victorian Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by the Commissioner of State Revenue and ruled that the sale and purchase of a partner’s interest in a land-owning partnership was not a “transfer of dutiable property” because a partner’s interest in a land-owning partnership is not an ‘interest in’ an ‘estate in fee simple’ in…
On 11 January 2018, the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, the Hon Kelly O’Dwyer MP, released for public consultation draft legislation and a consultation paper entitled ‘Superannuation Taxation Integrity Measures’. [See her media release] On the same date, Treasury uploaded a consultation page, with following documents. A Superannuation Integrity Measures (Consultation Paper). Treasury Laws…
The SMSF industry is still working through the far-reaching policy and legislative changes that took effect on 1 July 2017, says SMSF Association CEO John Maroney, in a media release issued on 12 January 2018. He says the changes – the most extensive in the past decade – fundamentally altered the superannuation landscape for SMSF…
The taxpayer has appealed against the decision in Decleah Investments Pty Ltd and Anor as Trustees for the PRS Unit Trust and FCT [2017] AATA 2418. In that case, the AAT ruled that the taxpayer company had not provided an approved valuation for the purposes of the GST Act when applying the margin scheme to…
The AAT has upheld default assessments totalling $8.9m based on cash withdrawals by the taxpayer from 2 companies conducting a “bogus” gold trading business. The taxpayer held 100% of the share capital in Company 1 and 45% of Company 2 (with the remainder held by her son: Aldo and not, with her other son: Danielle).…
The AAT has found that a truck driver’s work expense claims exceeded the reasonable amounts for the 2012 and 2013 years and he was therefore required to substantiate the expenses, but was allowed some deductions, under the Commissioners s900-195 discretion. It also upheld the Commissioner’s decision to impose a 25% shortfall penalty. In the 2012…
The Government announced draft legislation for a ‘tax debt transparency’ (disclosure) measure on 11 January 2018, for consultation purposes (see related Tax Month article). On the same day, ATO uploaded the following article, seeking simultaneous consultation on its proposed administration of this proposed measure (with suitable disclaimers about this only being proposed administration of a…
On 11 January 2018, the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services released exposure draft legislation and explanatory material for public consultation that will authorise the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to disclose business tax debts to credit reporting bureaus (CRBs) where the businesses have not effectively engaged with the ATO to manage their debt. The Government…
The Federal Court has ruled that an investment of Mr Benson’s self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) in a property sub-trust, breached the sole purpose test and in-house asset rules under ss 62 and 82 of SIS Act (respectively). This was because, amongst other things, the ultimate investment was a student apartment, occupied by Mr Benson’s daughter. This underlying substance of the arrangement…
Under FOI, Treasury has released a policy document indicating that the Government does not support the extension of the GST reduced input tax credit (RITC) scheme for “credit union services” to cover mutual building societies and mutual banks. This follows calls by the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) for the RITC scheme, currently available to…
