The ATO on Thur 5.7.2012, released a Decision Impact Statement on the decision in AAT Case [2012] AATA 120, Re General Aviation Maintenance Pty Ltd and FCT. In that case, the AAT affirmed a business was liable to the super guarantee charge (SGC) as the work provided by a tandem master parachutist it paid was…
The taxpayer has lodged an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court from the Full Federal Court decision in FCT v Greenhatch [2012] FCAFC 84. The Full Federal Court had unanimously upheld the Commissioner’s appeal and held that the assessable income of a beneficiary presently entitled to a discounted capital gain made…
In an interlocutory matter, the AAT has held that a taxpayer was at all relevant times a beneficiary of a trust estate and that an amended assessment issued in April 2010 for the 2005 tax year was issued within time – that is, within 4 years pursuant to Item 4 of s 170(1) of the…
The AAT has found that a taxpayer has failed to satisfy the burden of proving that amended assessments issued to him for the 2000 to 2002 years were excessive. The assessments were made on the basis that the taxpayer had understated his income by some $190,000, $243,000 and $169,000 in each of those years, and…
The AAT has exercised its powers to summarily dismiss an application by a taxpayer who sought to argue that he was carrying on a personal service business in respect of horticultural consultancy service provided by his family company to a related company. It did so essentially on the basis that the taxpayer was seeking to…
The AAT has held that amended assessments issued to a taxpayer outside of the standard 2-year amendment period to include foreign employment income were unlawful. The matter concerned the 2006 and 2007 income tax returns of the taxpayer, a pilot, who had disclosed exempt foreign employment income for both years. The Commissioner issued assessments for…
The AAT has confirmed that a taxpayer, a member of an overseas property development group, was not entitled to deductions for over $18m in various outgoings incurred in connection with the development of a “golf course and resort style living” complex. The outgoings were incurred following the taxpayer’s restructuring when it ran into financial and…
The AAT has held that a company’s activities were not research and development (R&D) activities as those activities are defined in s 73B(1) of ITAA 1936. RACV Sales and Marketing Pty Ltd (RACV Sales) was registered under s 39J of the Industry Research and Development Act 1986 (IRD Act) in respect of R&D activities in…
The Federal Court has held that some 20 News Corp group companies were entitled to over $2bn in foreign exchange losses in the 2001 and 2002 income years under Div 3B of the ITAA 1936 (as it then applied) that arose from the global restructure of the group in the early 1990s. Broadly, the losses…
In a decision handed down on Tue 17.7.2012, the Federal Court allowed the Commissioner’s appeal and held that the taxpayer had not in fact discharged the onus of proving that amounts of over $4.75m deposited in its bank account from an overseas bank was not income. At first instance, in AAT Case [2011] AATA 628,…