The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is collecting bulk records from Australian cryptocurrency designated service providers (DSPs) as part of a data matching program to ensure people trading in cryptocurrency are paying the right amount of tax. Data to be provided to the ATO will include cryptocurrency purchase and sale information. Deputy Commissioner Will Day said…
On 5th March 2019, Assistant Treasurer Robert announced an independent review into the effectiveness of the Tax Practitioners Board, and the operation of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 and the Tax Agent Services Regulations 2009, which establish the regulatory regime for tax practitioners in Australia, to consider whether the legislative and governance framework for…
On 17 April 2019, the New Zealand Government released its respond to the recommendations of the independent Tax Working Group report. The Government is not adopting any of the recommendations on capital gains taxation and has agreed no further work is necessary on that aspect of the report. See below for the responses. [Tax Month –…
Australian Financial Review, p.40, Monday 29 April 2019 – written by Adele Feguson – link to article Tax Technical observations: For anyone interested in this, it is well worth following the links embedded in this article. Richard Boyle attempted to make protected disclosures under Commonwealth public service whistleblower legislation: Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013, and…
The prominent Kate Carnell, in her capacity as the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, issued an important report, on the ATO’s debt collection practices, including ‘garnishee notices’, which challenges contrary conclusions by the IGT one month earlier (see related Tax Technical article) and the Commissioner’s response to this apparent vindication (see related TT…
In March 2019, the Commissioner issued a statement welcoming the apparent vindication of his office, in the Inspector General’s (IGT) report on allegations of garnishee notice abuses, aired in the ABC’s Four Corners program, nearly one year earlier (in April 2018) [see related Tax Technical Article]. I doubt that we have heard the last of…
On 13 March 2019, the IGT handed down his self initiated inquiry into whether an ATO ‘whistleblower’s allegations were correct – in the ABC’s Four Corners program [see related TT Article]. The IGT found ‘no evidence’ to support these allegations. The Commissioner welcomed this report [see related TT Article]. The ‘Australian Small Business Ombudsman’ Kate…
The AAT has affirmed that most of the ATO’s objection decision as the taxpayer could not prove that the monies received were characterised as loans. The taxpayer was a Chinese businesswoman who has been living in Australia since 2006. She received large payments from China in the 2011, 2012 and 2013 years of income. [Tax…
T a x T e c h n i c a l – M o n t h l y N e w s – January to April 2019 Developments – This is a collection of developments in Australian tax law and practice that occurred in January to April 2019 which aims to be relevant to tax…