New Regulation giving business names not registered on ASIC’s national register another 5 years to continue being registered on the ABR (and have an ABN)

The A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Amendment (Display of Trading Names) Regulations 2018 provides a further 5 year extension of the time, from 1 November 2018 to 31 October 2023, that unregistered  trading names, can remain on the on the Australian Business Register (ABR). These are business names that were on the ABR…

Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2018 becomes law – MAAL extended to foreign trusts and partnerships; additional ‘Small Business CGT Concession’ conditions for CGT events affecting shares and interests in trusts

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2018 was passed by the Senate on Thu 20.9.2018 and received Royal Assent on 3 October 2018 as Act No. 124 of 2018. It passed with 2 Opposition amendments to which the House of Reps agreed. It contains the following previously-announced measures: Multinational anti-avoidance law…

Vic payroll tax: Comr of State Revenue v The Optical Superstore Pty Ltd – taxpayer wins in optical industry deemed “wages” case – return of contractors fees from customers was not relevantly a ‘payment’

The Supreme Court of Victoria has dismissed the Commissioner of State Revenue’s appeal and found that distributions to Optometrist Entities were not “payments” within the meaning of the payroll tax acts because the Optometrist Entities beneficially owned the funds which were to be distributed to them under the respective express trusts. The Optical Superstore Pty…

Ellison v Sandini Pty Ltd – High Court refuses leave to appeal in Family Law rollover to corporate trustee case

The High Court has refused Sandini’s application for special leave to appeal from the decision of the Full Federal Court in Ellison v Sandini Pty Ltd [2018] FCAFC 44. The Full Federal Court had held that that Sandini was not entitled to s 126-5 (marriage breakdown roll-over relief), by operation of s 126-15, because: the 21 September 2010 orders…

Nguyen v CofT – upheld AAT’s application of Binetter decision – making the ‘amendment’ and ‘penalty’ decisions effectively unchallengeable – without satisfying onus on the substantive liability

The Federal Court has confirmed that the onus is on the taxpayer to prove that there is no fraud or evasion. The taxpayer challenged an AAT decision (Nguyen and FCT [2016] AATA 1041) that the taxpayer had failed to discharge her burden under s 14ZZK(b)(i) of the TAA of showing that amended assessments for the 2008,…

Board of Tax’s Consultation Paper on new ‘residency’ rules for individuals – Primary (count the days) Test; Secondary (5 factor Australian ties) Test & various ‘integrity’ approaches – none great

In May 2016, the Board commenced a self-initiated review of the current individual tax residency rules. In the course of it’s inquiries, the Board spoke to English taxing authorities (HMRC) about their experience (see Tax Technical articles: FOI notes of HMRC call, Tax Month article on FOI document). It found that that the current individual tax…

Treasury Laws Amendment (Accelerated Depreciation for Small Business Entities) Act 2018 – 12 month extension of $20,000 instant asset write-off (to 30 June 2019) now law

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Accelerated Depreciation for Small Business Entities) Bill 2018 having been introduced on 24 May 2018; referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on the same date, which reported on 30 May 2018 (unanimously supporting passage); was introduced into the Senate on 25 June 2018; sat in abeyance over 1 July 2018…

EU 3% ‘digital’ turnover tax on ‘significant global (digital) entities’ a possibility – global annual turnover of €750 million and annual EU revenue of at least €50 million

On 20 September 2018, The Irish Times reported that EU countries could agree a new short-term digital sales tax to apply to many of the major tech firms before the end of the year, according to Pascal Saint-Amans, the OECD’s leading tax expert, whilst speaking at the PwC/Irish Times tax summit, in Dublin (on 20 September 2018). Mr…

Vic land tax: Living and Leisure Australia Ltd (ACN 107 863 445) v Comr of State Revenue – assessments upheld re use of Crown land in ski resort – taxpayer loses appeal

The Victorian Court of Appeal has, by majority (Niall J dissenting), granted a taxpayer leave to appeal; but then dismissed its appeal, concerning land tax assessments, in respect of Crown lands, within the alpine resorts, at Falls Creek and Mount Hotham, which were used and occupied by wholly-owned subsidiaries of the taxpayer. The background was this. The…

HMRC’s adoption of a ‘statutory rules test’ for residency of individuals – notes of Board of Tax call in October 2016 (released now under FOI)

Treasury has released a document, released under Freedom of Information, relating to a Board of Tax, call it had the UK Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in October 2016, relating to their experience with their move to a ‘Statutory Rules Test’ for residency of individuals in the UK. [See Tax Technical – Tax Article] This is…