Legal news
As previously reported in June this year, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) published the Draft Taxation Determination TD 2017/D1 altering their previous published interpretation of the meaning of “distributes” for the purposes of the family trust distribution tax (FTDT).
The draft tax determination has now been published in its final form as TD 2017/20, confirming that FTDT can apply where there is a “distribution” to a person who is not a beneficiary of the trust.
The Corporations Amendment (Crowd-sourced Funding for Proprietary Companies) Bill 2017 was introduced into Parliament on 14 September 2017. If passed, as is expected, the Bill will extend the reach of the Crowd-sourced Equity Funding (CSEF) legislation that will at this stage apply only to public companies from 29 September 2017.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) published the final version of the Practical Compliance Guidelines (PCG) 2016/16, which provides guidance in relation to what will be considered by the Commissioner when exercising his discretion to treat an interest in the income or capital of a trust as being a fixed entitlement and by extension whether a trust is a fixed trust for the purposes of the tax law.
As previously discussed in this forum, changes to the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) Rebate eligibility criteria and cap reduction were announced in December 2016 by the Turnbull Government. These reforms received assent on 23 August 2017 and bring significant changes to the entitlement to the WET producer rebate.
In light of the 2016-17 Federal Budget handed down earlier this year, followed by consultation with participants in the wine industry, the Turnbull Government has announced on 02 December 2016 reforms to the WET Rebate. The purpose of these reforms, as stated by Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Small Business, Kelly O’Dwyer is to address “distortions in the market through the misuse and exploitation of the WET Rebate scheme”.
On 10 October 2016, the Federal Government released an Exposure Draft to implement changes to the debt and equity tax rules in Division 974 of Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. The Exposure Draft is intended to effect recommendations made by the Board of Taxation in its April 2015 report Review of the Debt and Equity Tax Rules.
In a recent speech to the Australian Institute of Directors, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) chairman Greg Medcraft outlined ASIC’s expectations for directors. Previous speeches focused on the director’s role as a gatekeeper, and Mr Medcraft has said this will continue to be a focus for ASIC.
The chairman stated that directors should ensure their company has strong internal and audit compliance functions. He stated these functions are worthless unless the directors back it up with supervision and review, and that these processes are ingrained in the company’s culture. He considered culture a very important point and stressed directors should drive the right compliance culture in the workplace.
Proposed amendments to the employee share scheme provisions for start-ups.
On 14 October 2014, the Honourable Bruce Billson, the Honourable Tony Abbott and the Honourable Joe Hockey issued a media release titled "Encouraging employee share ownership and entrepreneurship".
The position of the Government in respect of the application of the employee share scheme (ESS) provisions to start ups has been long awaited, with it being seen as fundamental to the innovative nature of start-up companies, and the need to ensure that they retain a work environment that fosters new ideas.
