Good governance is an area of concern for newer charities, a recent review by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has found. In examining its 15 most significant current compliance cases, the ACNC said it found that every case involved governance issues. One-third of these cases involved charities less than 5 years old, all…
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) says thousands of charities have shared valuable information about their work by submitting their first ever information statement to the Commission. More than 25,000 of the estimated 30,000 charities with a 31 March deadline completed their Annual Information Statement on time. This involved a series of questions about the core…
This Determination, released on Wed 9.4.2014, sets out the circumstances in which a bank account of a complying superannuation fund is a “segregated current pension asset” under s 295-385 of the ITAA 1997. The application of the definition to a bank account is a key requirement for a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) to qualify for a…
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Wed 2.4.2014, released its submission to the Murray Financial System Inquiry, including an overview of the role of superannuation in the financial system and the ways in which it differs internationally. The Bank called on the Inquiry panel to further investigate a number of superannuation-related issues, including fees…
The AAT has held that fishing crew members on a commercial fishing vessel operated by the taxpayer were not “employees” at common law or under the extended meaning of that term in s 12(3) of the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (SGAA). As such, the taxpayer company was not required to make superannuation contributions in respect…
This Draft GST Ruling, issued on Wed 23.4.2014, explains the Commissioner’s view on the GST consequences of incentive payments made by motor vehicle manufacturers, importers and distributors to motor vehicle dealers. The Draft seeks to provide practical guidance to the motor vehicle industry following the decision of the Full Federal Court in AP Group Ltd…
The governments of 86 countries have taken a key step towards preventing VAT/GST from weighing on trade while also safeguarding state revenues by endorsing the first internationally agreed framework for applying national VAT/GST rules to cross-border transactions. More than 250 high-level representatives of around 100 countries, jurisdictions and international organisations, attending the second meeting of…
The ATO has amended the following Practice Statements PS LA 2005/2 (GA) was amended on 14 April 2014 to remove reference to a number of fact sheets and replace with GSTR 2006/7. The Practice Statement explains when the Commissioner may accept that an entity, which did not choose to apply the margin scheme to work out the GST on…
This Draft Determination, released on Wed 9.4.2014, states that payments made by a vendor to a purchaser of real property when the rent received falls below a rental yield guaranteed by the vendor give rise to an adjustment event for the purposes of Div 19 of the GST Act. The ATO says this will be the…
This Draft GST Determination, issued Wed 2.4.2014, states that the supply of a credit card facility will be GST-free under para (a) of Item 4 in s 38-190(1) of the GST Act to the extent it is intended that the cardholder will use the facility to undertake a transaction when they are physically outside Australia. This…