The Federal Court has granted the application of husband and wife taxpayers under the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 and s 39B of the Judiciary Act 1903 to quash the Commissioner’s decision to issue a garnishee notices pursuant to s 260-5 of Sch 1 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 to the taxpayers’ superannuation fund, which the…
A Treasury discussion paper released on Wed 3.4.2013, proposes that large corporate entities would be required to disclose tax payable. The Assistant Treasurer said the discussion paper follows the Government’s earlier announcement that it intends to change the tax laws to improve the transparency of Australia’s business tax system. A copy of the discussion paper…
The Assistant Treasurer announced on Mon 8.4.2013, that providers of ethics classes in government schools will be eligible for deductible gift recipient (DGR) status. He said the Government will amend the tax laws to expand the DGR categories to include organisations approved by State or Territory governments to provide ethics classes in public schools as…
The Treasurer has announced that the Government would introduce a $2,000 cap on tax deduction claims for work-related self-education expenses per person from 1 July 2014. The announcement was made “as part of a package of reforms to make a down-payment on the National Plan for School Improvement”. Mr Swan said that without a cap, “it’s possible…
The Government has announced enhancements to the Farm Management Deposits (FMD) scheme to assist farmers and support the rural sector as a part of its Farm Finance package. It said it will increase the non-primary production income threshold from $65,000 to id=”mce_marker”00,000 so that more primary producers can access the scheme and diversify their income…
The Federal Court has allowed the Commissioner’s appeal and set aside the decision in AAT Case [2012] AATA 719, Re Nash and FCT, which had held that a taxpayer was entitled to deductions of GIC accrued in each of the years to which it was referable. In 2008, the Commissioner issued assessments and GIC notices…
In a decision handed down on Fri 26.4.2013, the Federal Court allowed a taxpayer’s appeal and held that default assessments that included as assessable income a $58m capital gain were precluded by the Australia/US DTA. In July 2007, the taxpayer (RCF) sold 52.5m fully paid ordinary shares in St Barbara Mines Ltd (now called St Barbara Limited)…
The Government on Thur 18.4.2013, released draft legislation for a new tax loss incentive for major infrastructure projects [this was announced in the 2011-12 Federal Budget on 10 May 2011]. The draft legislation is on the Treasury website. Under the new regime, the Infrastructure Coordinator, a statutory officeholder under the Infrastructure Australia Act, will designate projects as…
The Government Thur 18.4.2013, released draft regulations designed to ensure that unregistered business names that were on the Australian Business Register (ABR) before 28 May 2013 can continue to be publicly disclosed by the Registrar of the ABR until 30 June 2014. The proposed regulations would amend the A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Regulations 1999. COMMENTS are…
The House of Reps Economics Committee will hold a public hearing this Thursday, 18 April 2013 into the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2013 Measures No 2) Bill 2013. The hearing will cover 3 schedules in the Bill: Schedule 1 which proposes to define a “documentary” for the purpose of accessing film tax offsets, and makes explicit…
