The Supreme Court of Western Australia has sentenced Gregory John Dunn to 7 years’ imprisonment (with a 4-year non-parole period) for his role in a $2.6m tax conspiracy involving a false interest deduction scheme. Mr Dunn was found guilty on 8 November 2013 of conspiring with another person with the intention of dishonestly causing a loss to a…
The AAT has ruled that an early retirement pension that a resident taxpayer received from the World Bank in the 2009 and 2010 income years in connection with his employment with the bank as a sanitary engineer between 1993 and 2007 was exempt from Australian income tax. The taxpayer argued that the pension, in view…
The AAT has confirmed the Commissioner’s objection decision to disallow a taxpayer’s claim for an R&D tax offset of some $370,000 in the 2007 income year and to only allow a tax offset of $25,000 under an adjustment made via a notice issued under s 73IA of the ITAA 1936. The taxpayer claimed the offset in…
The AAT has held that a taxpayer, through persons appointed as her power of attorney (including her nephew), was not carrying on a business of share trading. As a result, the taxpayer was not entitled to a deduction for a trading loss of some $790,000 in the 2009 income year. In arriving at its decision,…
A taxpayer has failed in his bid to be released from outstanding income tax liabilities on grounds of serious hardship. The taxpayer’s income tax related liabilities (including interest and penalties) totalled just over $40,000. His GST debts (including related interest charges and penalties) totalled almost $34,000, but the Commissioner’s power (under s 340-10 in Sch 1 TAA)…
The AAT has remitted a matter to the Commissioner with the direction that a taxpayer be assessed for the 2008 income year as having a taxable income of id=”mce_marker”26,301 and being liable to tax of $37,620.40, together with any necessary adjustment to penalty and interest. It also affirmed a 75% administrative penalty that had been…
The AAT has affirmed the Commissioner’s decision to disallow tax withheld and various work-related expenses claimed by a taxpayer. It also affirmed the 25% shortfall penalty imposed by the Commissioner for failing to take reasonable care. The taxpayer was a computer programmer who was both an employee and a director of a company. For the…
The Federal Court has set aside the Commissioner’s decision on the basis on which copyright deductions could be claimed by the taxpayer and ordered that the matter be remitted to the Commissioner for re-determination in accordance with its own basis on which the deduction should be claimed. The deductions were claimed by the taxpayer under…
In a test case funded by the ATO, the Federal Court has set aside an AAT decision after finding that it “fell into error” in the way it applied the Commissioner’s discretion to disregard certain excess non-concessional superannuation contributions. In doing so, the Court provided some detailed guidance on the statutory construction and application of…
The Federal Court has largely upheld an AAT decision to disallow taxpayers’ claims for fuel tax credits. The taxpayers in partnership conducted a sawmilling business in northern NSW. One of the partners also conducted a separate sawmilling business and a farming business on his own property in northern NSW. The partner and the partnership both…