The ATO, on Mon 15.2.2016, issued Draft Law Companion Guideline LCG 2016/D1 (GST and carrying on an enterprise in the indirect tax zone (Australia)). It describes how the Commissioner plans to apply the proposed new GST test for carrying on an enterprise in the indirect tax zone (ie Australia). This test is contained in the Tax and Superannuation…
The Federal Court has denied a taxpayer a refund of $452,452,013 which had been withheld as dividend withholding tax from the consideration paid to the taxpayer for its shares in Optus. The dispute concerned an amount of $3.9 billion debited to an account described as a “buyback reserve account” in the ledger of Cable &…
The Assistant Treasurer: The Hon Kelly O’Dwyer, together with the Minister for Resources (and the former Asst Treasurer): The Hon. Josh Frydenberg, issued a joint press release that said the following. The recently released results for the first year of the Government’s $100 million Exploration Development Incentive (EDI) highlight its broad use in new exploration.…
On 15 February 2016, Treasury released a consultation paper on the tax incentives for ‘early stage investors’, with the following preamble. “On 7 December 2015, the Government announced the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA), including new tax incentives for early stage investors. The tax incentives will provide concessional tax treatment for investors through a non-refundable…
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found that the scale of a taxpayer’s cropping and grazing activities was not sufficient for the taxpayer to qualify for the primary production land tax exemption. The taxpayer was the trustee of a trust which held 107 hectares of land in greater Melbourne. Part of the land was…
The AAT has found that a taxpayer was not carrying on a business of share trading, and accordingly was not entitled to claim a $20,000 loss resulting from share transactions in the 2011 income year. The taxpayer earned around $40,000 as a childcare worker but turned over approximately $600,000 in share transactions (including both purchases…
The taxpayer has appealed to the Federal Court against the decision in Re Sandbach and FCT [2015] AATA 1024. In the case, the AAT affirmed default assessments (including penalties) issued by the Commissioner, finding that the taxpayer could not use “threatened” losses from proceedings that had ended over a decade ago to reduce his taxable income to nil.…
Background – The National Innovation and Science Agenda (the Agenda) was launched on 7 December 2015. The Agenda aims to create a more innovative and entrepreneurial Australia. In launching the Agenda the Australian Government committed to undertaking a review of the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Incentive programme. Objective – The Review is identifying opportunities…
On Thursday 11/2/16, Treasury released a consultation paper on whether Australia should adopt the OECD’s latest transfer pricing recommendations (arrived at as part of its BEPS work). The Treasury release, of the consultation paper, stated the following. Transfer pricing rules are designed to make sure Australia receives an appropriate share of tax from multinational firms.…
On 11 February 2016, the Government introduced the Tax Laws Amendment (Norfolk Island CGT Exemption) Bill 2016 into the House of Representatives. [APH website] 1.1 This Bill amends the Income Tax (Transitional Provisions) Act 1997 to exempt assets held by Norfolk Island residents before 24 October 2015 from capital gains tax (CGT). 1.2 However, this change…