Scam emails from senders purporting to be Trade Mark Attorneys from “Trademark Registry Hub” or “Patents Registry Hub” are currently circulating with a number of our client’s reportedly receiving the same communication. These emails can be concerning and convincing. Here’s what to do.

On Thursday 16 November 2023, the Federal Court handed down the decision McD Asia Pacific LLC v Hungry Jack’s Pty Ltd [2023] FCA 1412 (McD) where it was held the trade mark ‘BIG JACK’ and ‘MEGA JACK’ were not deceptively similar to McDonald’s registered trade marks ‘BIG MAC’ and ‘MEGA MAC’.

The AAT has rejected the Federal Commissioner of Taxation’s (Commissioner) view that a discretionary payment received by an employee upon his termination should be taxed as ordinary income. Despite the payment being made upon the termination of the employee the Commissioner argued that it was received in respect of their employment as it was calculated in relation to fees earnt.

Advising clients on business structuring requires the consideration, and assessment, of the factors that should be considered when a client is about to commence the operation of a business.

In our earlier article, we noted the Federal Court in FCT v Eichmann [2019] FCA 2155 (Eichman) in late 2019 had found in favour of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) (appealing a decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal) and held land used for storage was not an active asset for the purposes of the small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions in Division 152 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997).

The Court of Appeal handed down its decision in MD Commercial Pty Ltd v Commissioner of State Revenue [2019] VSCA 295 in late 2019. The decision has provided further clarity on the application of section 35 of the Duties Act 2000 (Vic) which provides an exemption from duty for transfers to bare trusts.

The Federal Court in FCT v Eichmann [2019] FCA 2155 (Eichmann) held that land used for storage was not an active asset for purposes of the small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions in Division 152 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997).

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has determined that land, used to store tools and materials for the purposes of operating a business, constituted an “active asset” for the purposes of the small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions.

On 20 September 2017, the Senate passed the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2018 (the Bill).

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has denied a taxpayer a capital gains tax (CGT) discount on a gain on the disposal of shares she acquired as part of an employee share scheme (ESS).

A taxpayer has been found liable for a tax bill of $106,058 in relation to shares they acquired as part of an employee share scheme (ESS) with their previous employer, NewSat Limited, a now insolvent company with a share value of nil. 

We have previously written (see here and here) about the Tax Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan Base Rate Entities) Bill 2017 (the Bill) that proposes to deny the lower 27.5% corporate tax rate to corporate tax entities with less than $25 million of turnover that derive predominantly (80% or more) passive income (‘base rate entity passive income’) has not been debated by the Parliament since 12 February 2018.

The application of the small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions in Division 152 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (CGT Concessions) is an area of interest for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).