The Full Federal Court has dismissed a taxpayer’s appeal against a Federal Court decision that he was not carrying on a business of primary production in the relevant years and was therefore not entitled to deductions in respect of improvements he made to the property. The taxpayer had appealed the decision of Collier J (in Nelson…
The High Court on Wed 10.12.2014, unanimously allowed the Commissioner of State Revenue’s appeals from a decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria in Lend Lease Development Pty Ltd & Ors v Comr of State Revenue [2013] VSCA 207 and held that the Commissioner was entitled to assess duty to…
The High Court handed down this important decision on 3 December 2014 and the reports about it can be found above under ‘Cases’, ‘High Court’ under the same heading. [LTN 234, 3/12/14]
On 18 December 2014, the OECD released the following 2 discussion drafts on the BEPS Action Plan: Action 4 of the BEPS Action Plan – Interest deductions – comments are due by 6 February 2015. There will be public consultation on 17 February 2015. Action 14 of the BEPS Action Plan – Dispute resolution – comments are due by 16 January 2015. Public…
The OECD has released 2 new BEPS discussion drafts: Transfer pricing aspects of cross-border commodity transactions. Deals with work in relation to BEPS Action 10. Action 10 identifies that work needs to be undertaken to develop rules to prevent BEPS by engaging in transactions which would not, or would only very rarely, occur between third…
On 18 December 2014, the OECD released discussion drafts of 2 new elements of the OECD International VAT/GST Guidelines. The OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs (CFA) is developing the Guidelines to address issues of double taxation and unintended non-taxation resulting from inconsistencies in the application of VAT to international trade. The first 3 chapters of these Guidelines…
The OECD has just released its Economic Survey of Australia (dated 16 December 2014). The Survey recommended that Australia: Rebalance its tax mix ie shift away from income and transaction taxes, make greater use of efficient tax bases such as the GST and land tax. Prioritise corporate-tax rate cuts. Reduce regulatory burdens. Continue to be tough on…
Reuters has reported that the Luxembourg public prosecutor’s office advised on 12 December 2014 that a Luxembourg judge has charged a former PricewaterhouseCoopers employee suspected of leaking documents about secret corporate tax deals with theft and giving away business secrets. It said in a statement that, on 12 December 2014, an examining magistrate had also charged the unidentified person…
Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb has announced that Australia’s Free Trade Agreement with South Korea will enter into force on 12 December 2014. The Agreement’s entry into force will mean that many Australian exporters will benefit from an immediate tariff cut by Korea, and a further tariff cut on 1 January 2015, Mr Robb said. Under the Agreement,…
Senator the Hon Arthur Sinodinos AO, Senator for NSW, has announced that he will be resigning as Assistant Treasurer with effect from close of business on Friday, 19 December 2014. He said he has written to the Prime Minister in those terms. Senator Sinodinos confirmed that he had been confidentially discussing his ministerial future with the Prime…