The Assistant Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, on Mon 19.1.2015, released the Inspector-General of Taxation’s Review into the ATO’s administration of valuation matters. He said valuation requirements have been an area of ongoing concern for taxpayers. The Inspector-General has identified inherent difficulties associated with the nature and associated costs of valuations. Given these issues, the Inspector-General has made…
Treasury on Mon 19.1.2015, released for comment, an exposure draft of legislation, which proposes to amend the income tax law to provide look-through income tax treatment for instalment warrants and instalment receipts. Under the proposed changes, the investor in the instalment warrant or receipt will be treated as the owner of the asset of the…
On 21 December 2014, the Prime Minister announced several changes to the Ministry. Following the resignation of Senator the Hon Arthur Sinodinos AO, Josh Frydenberg has been appointed as Assistant Treasurer. The PM said he will be an important part of 2015 Budget preparations and will join the Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet. The new Ministry was sworn…
The Minister for Small Business, Bruce Billson, and the Assistant Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, announced on 28 December 2014 that the Government will cut red tape for employers by simplifying tax and superannuation reporting obligations through Single Touch Payroll. Under Single Touch Payroll, which will be available from July 2016, employers’ accounting software will automatically report payroll information to the ATO…
The Government on Wed 14.1.2015, released draft legislation and draft regs designed to improve the taxation arrangements for Employee Share Schemes. The proposed amendments would: reverse some of the changes made in 2009 to the point at which rights issued as part of an employee share scheme are taxed for employees of all corporate tax…
In the 2013-14 Budget proposal limiting the immediate deductibility of expenditure on mining rights and mining information, there was a provision that the measure did not prevent the immediate deductibility of mining rights acquired under a “farm-in, farm-out” arrangement (the partial exchange of a tenement interest in exchange for the farmee providing exploration services as…
M o r g a n’ s T a x M o n t h – January 2015 Developments – This is a collection of developments in Australian tax law and practice that occurred in January 2015 and which aims at being of relevance to tax lawyers.* F John Morgan A member of the Victorian…
The AAT has confirmed that 3 companies, that were in effect owned and controlled by one director, were liable to FBT and 75% administrative penalties over a 4-year period for failing to lodge FBT returns in relation to several luxury cars. The penalties amounted to over $250,000. The resulted in an overall liability of over…
The 2016 edition of the OECD’s annual Revenue Statistics publication shows that the OECD average tax-to-GDP ratio rose slightly in 2015, to 34.3%, compared to 34.2% in 2014. This is the highest level since the Revenue Statistics series began in 1965. An increase in tax-to-GDP levels was seen in 25 of the 32 OECD countries that provided preliminary data…
This Bill was introduced into Parliament on 1 December 2016 and amends (amongst other things): The Corporations Act 2001 to provide that employee share scheme disclosure documents lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission are not made publicly available for certain start-up companies; and The Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to update the list…
