Victory International– Hybrid unit trusts subject to landholder duty
All Things Being Equal in the Estate Plan – Then There’s the Tax
With the best of intentions an estate plan often sets out to treat the beneficiaries on equal terms. However, it may not be until the estate is being administered that tax rears its head in some form or another so that one beneficiary’s share is diminished by the potential tax consequences attached to a certain asset including superannuation.
Uber Case – Payments made to drivers are deemed to be wages for payroll tax purposes
The New South Wales Court of Appeal has held that payments made to Uber drivers are deemed to be wages for payroll tax purposes under the relevant contract provisions.
In particular, the drivers provided services to Uber under their driving contracts. The driving contracts governed or controlled the driver’s performance. The driving services were not ancillary to the use of the vehicles. Uber was not successful in challenging the earlier decisions of Optical Superstore and Thomas and Naaz – in particular, the payments made to derivers were “paid or payable” by Uber.
Division 7A and UPEs: only mostly dead
FCT v Bendel: one more piece but uncertainty remains
On 12 June 2025, the High Court granted the Commissioner special leave to appeal the decision of the Full Federal Court in FCT v Bendel [2025] FCAFC 15 (Full Court Decision) that we wrote about here.
New South Wales case causes rethink on drafting of trust exclusion clauses
A New South Wales case has opened up a risk of taxpayers to surcharge rates of stamp duty and land tax for residential land held in family trusts where badly drafted foreign person exclusion clauses have been used. This may require a complete review of all trust deeds to ensure that additional stamp duty and land tax imposts are not incurred.
Sladen Snippet - New Victorian Penalty Tax regime to hit taxpayers
The State Government has introduced a new bill to State Parliament to implement changes from the 2025-2026 Victorian State Budget. Despite a promise of no new taxes or increased taxes, a new 50% penalty tax rate allows the State Revenue to impose higher penalties if it considers a taxpayer or their adviser has been “reckless”.
Family trust distribution tax
Victorian State Budget 2025-2026 - Tax Increases On The Way
FCT v Liang: Full Federal Court reaffirms taxpayer burden of proof
The Full Federal Court case of Commissioner of Taxation v Liang [2025] FCAFC 4 serves as a reminder that when challenging an ATO decision at a court or tribunal, it is the taxpayer who carries the burden of proving that an assessment is excessive and what the assessment should have been.
AusNet v FCT and back-to-back rollovers: nothing else matters?
Sladen Snippet – Board of Taxation recommends no SMSF crypto carve out for trading stock exemption
The Board of Taxation (BOT) has recently released its report on the taxation of digital taxes – Review of the tax treatment of digital assets and transactions in Australia. This includes a section, from page 155, on whether crypto assets should receive the “trading stock” exemption.
Sladen Snippet – Malcolm - Land tax joint assessment
The decision of Malcolm v Commissioner of State Revenue [2025] VCAT 218 has considered the operation of the joint owners of land provisions for Victorian land tax purposes and confirmed that where two taxpayers own multiple parcels of land together, the joint owned land will be aggregated and the progressive scale of land tax rates will be applied only once.
Sladen Snippet - Bendel and SMSFs – Part 4–Bendel and UPEs owing to SMSFs
As noted in part 1 of our articles on the application of the Bendel decision to the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act), in our view, it is likely that the Courts will apply the Bendel decision to the SIS Act, such that the expanded definition of loan in the SIS Act will apply to arrangements that involve the advancement of principal with an obligation to repay and that it will not apply to a mere creditor and debtor arrangement.
Sladen Snippet - Bendel and SMSFs – Part 3 –Bendel and the in-house asset rules
As noted in part 1 of our articles on the application of the Bendel decision to the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act), in our view, it is likely that the Courts will apply the Bendel decision to the SIS Act, such that the expanded definition of loan in the SIS Act will apply to arrangements that involve the advancement of principal with an obligation to repay and that it will not apply to a mere creditor and debtor arrangement (like a UPE).
In this part 3 of the series we examine how this may play out in the in-house asset rules contained in Part 8 of the SIS Act.
Sladen Snippet - Bendel and SMSFs – Part 2 –Bendel and section 65 of the SIS Act
As noted in part 1 of our articles on the application of the Bendel decision to the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act), in our view, it is likely that the Courts will apply the Bendel decision to the SIS Act, such that the expanded definition of loan in the SIS Act will apply to arrangements that involve the advancement of principal with an obligation to repay and that it will not apply to a mere creditor and debtor arrangement (like a UPE).
Sladen Snippet - Bendel and SMSFs – Part 1 – can Bendel be applied to the SIS Act?
As discussed here, the recent decision of the Full Federal Court (Court) in FCT v Bendel [2025] FCAFC 15 (Bendel) has been a significant one in the private tax world.
Sladen Snippet - Bendel: special leave and updated DIS - ATO fires a warning shot
On 19 February 2025, the Full Federal Court handed down its decision in FCT v Bendel [2025] FCAFC 15. On 18 March 2025, the ATO applied for special leave and, on 19 March 2025, the ATO updated its interim decision statement (DIS) on the case.
We review the updated DIS below.
#Division 7A, #UPE, #Unpaid present entitlements, #Tax, #Trusts, #TD2022/11, #Bendel, #109D #Special leave #Decision Impact Statement
Payday super – exposure draft legislation now open for consultation
In the 2023-24 Budget, the Government announced that the super guarantee framework will be reformed to align the payment of super guarantee contributions with an employee’s regular pay cycle, instead of the current quarterly requirements.
The exposure draft legislation for the new ‘Payday Super’ rules has now been released, with consultation open until 11 April 2025.
The super guarantee charge, payable where employers fail to make contributions in full and on time, will be updated, including a new ‘administrative uplift’ component of up to 60% of the shortfall amount.