The Federal Court has held that husband and wife taxpayers who sold their combined 58% shareholding interest in a company had each satisfied the maximum net asset value test for the purpose of accessing the CGT small business concessions in respect of capital gains of $1.8m they each made on the sale. The Commissioner argued…
The Federal Court has held that legal professional privilege attached to a number of documents obtained by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) from several taxpayers. The Court said the ACC, in exercise of powers under the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 and warrants issued under the Crimes Act 1914, had obtained a large number of…
The Full Federal Court has dismissed an appeal by Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd against the decision of Ryan J on 30 May 2011 in Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd v FCT [2011] FCA 565, and at the same time has allowed a cross-appeal by the Commissioner from that same decision. The taxpayer (Esso) and…
The High Court on Fri 10.2.2012, decided several special leave applications in tax cases: The High Court refused the Commissioner special leave to appeal against the Full Federal Court decision in RCI Pty Ltd v FCT [2011] FCAFC 104. The Full Federal Court decision unanimously held that Pt IVA did not apply to a scheme,…
The Government has released for public consultation draft legislation, which aims to introduce tax exemptions and other tax concessions to support the Australian shipping industry. The draft legislation forms part of the Government’s Stronger Shipping for a Stronger Economy reform proposals. The tax proposals include: an income tax exemption for ship operators; provision for accelerated…
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer has released a consultation paper seeking views of stakeholders on the Government’s proposed reforms to the regulatory arrangements for charitable fundraising to reduce the compliance burden. Mr Bradbury said the consultation paper examines proposals for a new, nationally-consistent approach to the laws that govern charitable fundraising. The paper also…
The Minister for Financial Services on Thursday 9.2.2012, announced that more than 5,300 people can now expect to start seeing their share of over $54m in compensation payments, to be paid following the collapse of Trio Capital Ltd. Money will be progressively credited to member’s superannuation accounts over the next 2 weeks, he said. Mr…
The Government is planning to update the trust income tax provisions in Div 6 of Pt III of the ITAA 1936 and re-write them into the ITAA 1997. In November 2011, the Assistant Treasurer released a consultation paper. Following the close of submissions on that paper on Friday, 10 February 2012, Treasury will conduct a…
Treasury has advised that it received 28 submissions in response to the consultation paper released by the Government to amend the transfer pricing legislation following the Full Federal Court’s decision in FCT v SNF (Australia) Pty Ltd [2011] FCAFC 74. There were 25 public submissions and 3 confidential submissions. Treasury received submissions from the Institute…
Treasury has released a discussion paper on improving the operation of the taxation of financial arrangements (TOFA) tax hedging provisions. One of the purposes of the paper is to canvass possible implementation options for amendments relating to: hedge ineffectiveness; and hedging of a firm commitment which were announced as part of the 2011-12 Budget. Additionally,…