Category Archives: Tax Month – January 2013

*Coalition releases plan and policy priorities – cut tax; superannuation certainty [6]

In its recently released “Our Plan. Real Solutions for all Australians” statement, the Federal Coalition pledged to: abolish the carbon tax – “the first piece of legislation the Coalition will introduce” said Mr Abbott; abolish the mining tax; fund personal income tax cuts; deliver a “modest” cut in the company tax rate “funded from savings…

Final FATCA rules released by US Treasury [5]

The final FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) rules have been published by the US Treasury. The rules require foreign financial institutions (including institutions in Australia) with US$50,000 of any American taxpayer’s assets to report the holdings to the US Internal Revenue Service. Reuters said non-US pension funds and mutual funds were spared the full…

ACE Insurance Limited v Trifunovski & Ors – Insurance agents found to be employees, not contractors: company’s appeal dismissed [13]

The Full Federal Court has dismissed an appeal by a company against a July 2012 decision of the Federal Court (Perram J) in ACE Insurance Limited v Trifunovski (No 2) [2012] FCA 793. The Federal Court had imposed a civil penalty on the company, Combined Insurance Company of America Ltd (“Combined”), for treating insurance agents as independent contractors…

*Weeks v FCT – Full Federal Court holds that public service ‘redundancy’ was not tax law ‘genuine redundancy payment’ – senior ATO officer [11]

The Full Federal Court has unanimously dismissed the appeal of the taxpayer, a former senior tax officer, and confirmed that a termination payment made to her because her services could no longer be effectively utilised by the Tax Office was not a “genuine redundancy payment” under s 83-175 of the ITAA 1997. The taxpayer was offered,…

*Healey v FCT – Taxpayer’s appeal dismissed: CGT liability confirmed as onus not satisfied that ‘market value substitution rule’ applied to cost base [10]

The Full Federal Court has unanimously dismissed the taxpayer’s appeal from Healey v FCT [2012] FCA 269. In that case, the taxpayer, a beneficiary of a trust, was held to be assessable on a capital gain of $14m that arose from the sale of shares by the trust for $17m (which had previously been agreed…

*Sent v FCT – Bonus entitlements paid into executive share trust assessable: taxpayer loses appeal [9]

The Full Federal Court has dismissed a taxpayer’s appeal and held that the full amount of accrued and unaccrued bonus entitlements of $11.6m that were instead paid into an executive share trust on the taxpayer’s behalf had been derived by the taxpayer as ordinary income. The taxpayer was the managing director and CEO of a…

Tax Month – January 2013

M o r g a n’ s    T a x    M o n t h – January 2013 Developments – This is a collection of developments in Australian tax law and practice that occurred in January 2013 and which aims at being of relevance to tax lawyers.* F John Morgan A member of the Victorian…