The Duties (Commercial Leases) Amendment Bill 2014 (ACT) was introduced into the ACT Legislative Assembly on 20 March 2014. It proposes to amend the Duties Act 1999 (ACT) to introduce a premium-based method for assessing duty on commercial leases, being leases that have only a commercial purpose, or more than one purpose including commercial purposes. Examples of…
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has released for comment Exposure Draft Information Sheet TPB(I) D21/2014 (Code of Professional Conduct – Confidentiality of client information). The Draft aims to assist registered tax and BAS agents understand their obligations under s 30-10(6) of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA) (Code Item 6), which is one of the…
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has released information on a notification option for becoming registered as a tax (financial) adviser. Under the notification option, there are no application fees payable, individuals do not need to meet education and experience requirements, and partnerships and companies do not need to meet the sufficient number requirement. The Board…
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) on Fri 7.3.2014, released for comment Exposure Draft Information Sheet TPB(I)D20/2014 (What is a tax (financial) advice service?). From 1 July 2014, entities that provide tax (financial) advice services for a fee or other reward may start registering with the TPB. The Draft Information Sheet aims to assist entities to determine if they are…
An applicant has been unsuccessful before the AAT in seeking to overturn the decision of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) refusing his application to be registered as a tax agent. The applicant provided he would be content for his registration to be made conditional upon him being permitted only to prepare individual tax returns, including…
The AAT has affirmed a decision of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) to not renew the registration of a tax agent on the basis that he was not a “fit and proper” person for the purposes of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009. The applicant had been a registered agent since 1988, and following complaints…
The AAT has made an order staying a decision not to renew a tax agent’s registration. In December 2013, the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) decided not to renew the applicant’s registration as a tax agent on the basis that she was not considered to be a “fit and proper person”. This was based on ATO audits in…
The Board of Taxation on Tue 25.3.2014 (also), released for comment a discussion paper on the debt/equity rules. The Board noted that it had been asked to undertake a post-implementation review of the rules including whether there can be improved arrangements within the Australian tax system to address any inconsistencies between Australia’s and other jurisdictions’…
The Board of Taxation Tue 25.3.2014, released for comment a second discussion paper raising issues in accordance with the extended terms of reference given for the post-implementation review of Div 7A of Pt III of the ITAA 1936. The paper supplements the first discussion paper released in December 2012. The Board has made some preliminary observations in relation…
Treasury on Wed 12.3.2014, released for comment draft legislation and draft regulations to implement the 2009-10 Budget proposal to re-state and centralise the special conditions for tax concession entities. In December 2013, the Government had announced that it would proceed with the proposal. The changes propose to: re-state the “in Australia” special conditions for income tax exempt…