The Victorian State Revenue Office (SRO) has issued Revenue Ruling DA.026 (version 2) (Aggregation of dutiable transactions and the exception from aggregation for domestic builders where residential premises are to be constructed). The SRO says the Ruling has been updated to reflect the amendments made by the State Taxation Acts Amendment Act 2012 (Vic) to…
Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings on Thur 16.1.2014, announced that the State Election will be held on Saturday, 15 March 2014. The Premier has also terminated the ALP’s agreement with the Australian Greens and will withdraw the Greens commission as Ministers in the Tasmanian Government from Fri 17.1.2014. The Premier said the ALP will not enter into a…
The Federal Office of Best Practice regulation on Wed 15.1.2014, released its findings into post-implementation reviews conducted by Treasury into: The non-commercial loss provisions introduced following the 2009-10 Budget announcement. FBT: changes to the statutory formula method for determining the taxable value of car fringe benefits ie applying a single 20% rate. Better targeting concessions…
The Assistant Treasurer on Wed 29.1.2014, released for public consultation draft regulations and legislation (and accompany explanatory materials) to enact the Government’s announced reforms to the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) regime. Senator Sinodinos said although the Government was supportive of the FoFA principles, the previous Government’s reforms were “unwieldy, burdensome and unnecessarily complex”. He…
The NSW Government has urged businesses and individuals to check if they are entitled to any of the “forgotten” millions held by the NSW Office of State Revenue (OSR). The Government said the OSR is holding more than 289,000 items of unclaimed money worth around id=”mce_marker”38m. Unclaimed money could be from deceased estates, dividends, bonds,…
The ACT Revenue Office has issued Revenue Circular DAA013 (General insurance duty adjustments). As part of the ACT’s taxation reform measures, the amount of duty charged on general insurance is being abolished progressively over 5 years. Duty will be reduced by 20% each year until 1 July 2016, when the duty rate for insurance premiums will reduce…
The WA State Administrative Tribunal has held that a property owned by a taxpayer was used principally for a rural business and therefore exempt from land tax for the 2008-09 to 2011-12 financial years. The taxpayer was the owner of a plant nursery business. The Commissioner had until June 2011 exempted one of the taxpayer’s places of…
The NSW Court of Appeal has unanimously allowed a taxpayer’s appeal against an earlier decision, which had ordered that the Commissioner reassess the taxpayer for payroll tax in accordance with its reasons. The taxpayer sold snack foods and drinks through vending machines and engaged independent contractors to store, transport and restock the vending machines. The…
The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found that a taxpayer (an individual) was not liable to pay duty on the acquisition of an interest in a landholding entity in the ACT. On 14 December 2007, the taxpayer entered into a Purchase Option Agreement with her brother-in-law for the right to purchase the shares in his company…
The Commissioner for ACT Revenue has been unsuccessful before the ACT Court of Appeal in appealing a matter concerning the dutiable value of what he argued to be “house and land packages” or “off the plan” purchase arrangements under the Duties Act 1999 (ACT). The matter concerned the Commissioner’s assessment of stamp duty on so-called…