Category Archives: Tax Month – March 2024

Tax Month – March 2024

T a x  T e c h n i c a l  –  M o n t h l y  N e w s – March 2024 Edition – ‘Tax Developments’ for tax practitioners by a tax practitioner.   Compiled by F John Morgan A member of the Victorian Bar (www.FJMtax.com) Table of Contents ______________________________________________________________________________  …

Assessing the impact of the TASA changes on the tax agents profession (in the wake of the PwC scandals and intervention by the TPB, the Senate Committee and others)

The Chair of The Tax Institute’s National Taxation of Individuals Technical Committee: published an article entitled: ‘Assessing the impact of the TASA changes on the profession‘ in the Institute’s weekly email publication: TaxVine (9, 22.3.24). It reflects on the significant administrative changes to the regulation of the tax profession, made in 2023, and assesses the…

Mylan Australia Holding Pty Ltd v FCT (No 2) – Part IVA did not apply to intra-group funding arrangement – ‘tax benefit’ under counterfactual but not the ‘dominant purpose’

The head of a tax consolidated group has successfully argued that schemes to fund the acquisition, by a member of the group, of shares in an unrelated company, were not entered into or carried out for the dominant purpose of the taxpayer obtaining a tax benefit. The facts were these. The taxpayer is the head…

Safeguarding against cybercrime: what your professional organisation expects and the resources they offer

The Victorian Legal Services Board, has published an article on Cybercrime, for law practices (in the Commissioner’s March 2024 email update) – covering its requirements for firms and outlining the resources they provide. Tax agent, accounting bodies and other professional associations are likely to have equivalent requirements and resources. You might like to find them,…

Understanding how taxing capital gains, on shares or units, can be affected by the nature of the underlying assets and vice versa (CGT event K6, s115-45 and Div 149)

It is worth surveying how three CGT anti-avoidance provisions, can affect how the gain on shares or units, can be affected by the nature of underlying assets, held by the company or trust (in the K6 event provision: s104-230 and the discount capital gains provision: s115-45). Similarly the pre-CGT nature of a company or trust’s…

‘Nuisance tariffs’ – abolishing them gives some insight into making our other taxes more efficient 

On 11 March 2024, the Government announced that it would abolish almost 500 tariffs from 1 July 2024. Their compliance costs often exceed the revenue collected. Many do not collect more than $100k pa. And, yet, they affect $85b in trade. This approach can teach us about simplification of the tax system in other areas.…

The PwC story keeps giving – the battle between the ATO and the TPB over their investigation of leaked confidential Treasury information

Since about this time last year (late January 2023), the PwC leaks saga has been the ‘story that keeps on giving’. Whilst talking with colleagues, when this story was just breaking, one well placed person said that there was as much going on in the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) as outside it. And now (a…

An Australian tax might help ‘decarbonise’ the world – really, how … ?

You might ask what part ‘tax’, in Australia, plays in ‘decarbonising’ the world (or vice-versa) but the following article throws light on this (from the Australian Financial Review – 14.2.24). The answer is that ‘taxes’ will not be just income tax, CGT, GST, FBT etc – they could be a “carbon solutions levy” playing its…