In a previous article we discussed the High Court of Australia decision in Bywater & Ors v FC of T: see http://pointonpartners.com.au/australian-tax-residence-for-companies-revisited-by-high-court-after-43-years/ Subsequent to the High Court decision, the ATO withdrew its previous ruling TR 2004/15, and issued a new draft ruling TR 2018/D3, and an exposure draft Practical Compliance [...]
In the recent decision of the Federal Court in Harding v Commissioner of Taxation [2018] FCA 837, it was found that Mr Harding, an Australian citizen who lived and worked abroad for various periods, but focusing on March 2009 to February 2015, was a resident of Australia under the expanded [...]
A Bill to enact OECD BEPS Measure 15 was introduced into the House on 28 March 2018, with the government’s hope that it will pass the Parliament before the end of the financial year on 30 June 2018. If enacted, this will make Australia one of the first signatories to [...]
Image rights for sports people and actors It is said that the Government will “improve integrity” in the tax system by ensuring from 1 July 2019, high profile individuals are no longer able to take advantage of lower tax rates by licencing their fame or image to another entity. The [...]
In our recent article entitled “Corporate Tax Cuts. What do they mean for you?”, we referred to the relevant minister (Kelly O’Dwyer) questioning the ATO provisional interpretation of when a company would be “carrying on business” for the purpose of the reduction in the small business corporate tax rate. The [...]
Background In Practice Statement 2010/4, the Commissioner set out three safe harbour investment options that taxpayers could avail themselves of to ensure an Unpaid Present Entitlement (UPE) of a company from a trust, did not attract the application of Division 7A. These options involved having the UPE funds invested under [...]
The Treasurer has recently released exposure draft legislation (Treasury Laws Amendment (Housing Tax Integrity) Bill 2017) in relation to removal of the CGT main residence exemption for foreign residents. The changes are part of the Commonwealth Government’s ‘housing affordability’ reforms announced in the 2017-18 Budget. This will affect both Australian [...]
Just over two months have passed since the Federal Government enacted the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan) Act 2017 to reduce the corporate tax rate in Australia. The new company tax rate is 27.5% for the 2016-17 tax year for companies with aggregated annual turnover of less than $10m. [...]
Sham Loans The Commissioner of Taxation in two recent tax cases (Millar[1] and Normandy Finance[2]) and Liquidators in BCI Finances[3] (supported by the Commissioner of Taxation), have had success in alleging certain loans were shams. This had the effect that in the tax cases, that the taxpayer failed to discharge [...]
Lawyers and advisors who don’t advise their clients to obtain tax advice may be found liable for professional negligence. This is what happened in Ralston v Jurisich [2017] NSWCA 63. In that case, a lawyer’s failure to advise his client on the tax consequences of a share buy-back agreement or, [...]
