Tax Month – January to April 2019

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 practitioners.[i]

Compiled By

F John Morgan
A member of the Victorian Bar (www.FJMtax.com)

Table of Contents

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Legislation

Acts etc.

• Australia signs its first ‘Double Tax Agreement’ with Israel

Announcements

• University ‘Tax Clinics’ – Labor would fund Melbourne Uni’s clinic, allow them to register as tax agents and to get DGR status
• Labor announces ‘build to rent’ MIT changes and defers reduction of CGT discount and ‘negative gearing’ restrictions

Cases

High Court

• Glencore’s case in the High Court, seeking orders that the ATO return and not use ‘privileged’ documents stolen the Paradise Papers leak – decision reserved after hearing
• Harding and Living & Leisure High Court Special Leave applications

Full Federal Court

• Commissioner of Taxation v BHP Billiton Limited – BHP entities held to be ‘associates’ of Billiton (UK) entities, under their ‘dual-listed’ structure – for CFC purposes

Federal Court

• —

Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT)

• YPQF v CofT – Taxpayer fails to prove deposits of $16m were loans

Other Courts & Tribunals

• —

Appeals

• —

Rulings

Decision Impact statements

• —

Rulings

• —

Determinations

• —

Law Companion Rulings

• —

Class Rulings & Product Rulings

• —

ATO Interpretative Decisions

• —

Practice Statements

• —

Practical Compliance Guides

• —

Tax Alerts

• —

Other ATO news or statements

• ATO issues statement on the same day IGT reported that there was no evidence of ‘garnishee’ abuse in the ATO

GST 

Legislation & Announcements (GST)

• —

Cases (GST)

• —

Rulings, Etc. (GST)

• —

Superannuation

Legislation etc. (Super)

• —

Cases (Super)

• —

Other (Super)

• APRA’s 2019 superannuation focus for 2019 includes a review of the ‘sole purpose’ test

State Taxes

Legislation & Announcements (State)

• —

Cases (State)

• —

Rulings & Other (State)

• —

Other Developments

Australian Charities & Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC)

• —

Base Erosion & Profit Shifting (BEPS)

• —

Board of Taxation

• —

Inspector General and other external scrutiny

• IGT investigation into ATO’s use of garnishee notices for a ‘cash grab’ irrespective of taxpayer circumstances – no evidence
• Small Business Ombudsman reaches different conclusions to the IGT on ATO collection practices – following same Four Corners allegations

Miscellaneous

• NZ Government responds to Tax Working Group report – no CGT, no wealth tax, no land tax, don’t reduce company tax rates, retain franking, GST low value imports & ‘black hole expenditure …

Tax Practitioners Board

• Independent Review into the regulation of tax agents – the effectiveness of the Tax Practitioners Board and the operation of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009
• Tax Institute’s submission to the Review of the TPB & TASA – suggesting matters to go into their ‘Discussion Paper’ (interface with legal regulation mentioned)
• Hill v Tax Practitioners Board – tax agent deregistered without a client complaint and refused a stay of the order (read why)

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[i]           Sources – abbreviations: ‘KPMG’: KPMG Daily Tax News; ‘LCA’: Law Council of Australia; ‘LTN’: Latest Tax News (Thomson Reuters); ‘Sievers’: Chris Sievers’ GST post (www. http://chrissievers.com); ‘TBA’: Tax Bar Association Newsletter; ‘TaxVine’: The Tax Institute’s ‘TaxVine’.