Our international tax series discusses Commonwealth tax issues relating to non-resident beneficiaries or non-resident trustees of a trust.

This is the first article in a series relating to the Australian tax consequences for resident and non-resident beneficiaries of Australian and foreign trusts.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has recently held in Ransley v Federal Commissioner of Taxation that the profits derived by an individual taxpayer on the sale and exchange of shares were on revenue account. As a result, the taxpayer was not eligible for the capital gains tax rollover under Subdivision 124-M of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.

In an every day more globalised world, trade, technology and the ease in which individuals move around the globe have created considerable opportunities for Australian individuals and foreigners who have decided to establish themselves in Australia.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) recently released Taxation Determination TD 2018/13 (TD 2018/13) confirming its view that the (often overlooked) interposed entity provisions in section 109T of Division 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 can apply to ordinary commercial transactions.

The changes to the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) rebate eligibility criteria and cap reduction started applying from 1 July 2018.

On 11 July 2018, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) released Draft Taxation Determination TD 2018/D3 (TD 2018/D3) that contains the ATO’s “preliminary view” on the long-debated issue of trust splitting.

Australia is obligated under Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) regimes to automatically exchange financial account information with foreign jurisdictions.

In Ellison v Sandini Pty Ltd [2018] FCAFC 44, the Full Federal Court overturned decision which allowed Mr Sandini (the Taxpayer) to benefit from Capital Gains Tax (CGT) marriage breakdown rollover for the transfer of shares to an entity controlled by his former spouse, pursuant to a Family Court Order (FCO).

In Commissioner of Taxation v Miley, the Federal Court overturned decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) concerning the share valuation method for the purposes of the maximum net asset value (MNAV) test in s 152-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.

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.

On 23 October 2017, the Commissioner was granted special leave to appeal to the High Court against the Full Federal Court’s decision from earlier this year in Thomas v Commissioner of Taxation 2017 FCAFC 57.

On 19 September 2017, we considered the Exposure Draft legislation on eligibility for the lower company tax rate that was released on 18 September 2017.

The concept of “present entitlement” within the meaning of section 97 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 and validity of a “disclaimer of entitlement of income” were considered by the Full Federal Court in the recent case of Lewski v Commissioner of Taxation [2017] FCAFC 145 (Lewski) that illustrates the importance of having trust law and taxation law concepts properly aligned. Lewski was an appeal from a decision of the Administrative Affairs Tribunal.

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.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) recently held in the case of MSAUS v FC of T that Division 135 of the Good and Services Tax (GST) Act did not apply to impose an increasing adjustment [an amount of GST on an otherwise GST-free transaction] to the sale of leased residential apartments

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.

Practical Compliance Guideline (PCG) 2017/13 confirms the ability for a sub-trust arrangement using the 7-year option 1 investment agreement to be converted into a compliant loan, as described under section 109-N of Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 36). The ability to refinance UPE for an additional 7 years may be advantageous to taxpayers that would otherwise have been required to repay such arrangements by either 30 June 2017 or 30 June 2018.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released for public comment draft Practical Compliance Guideline (PCG) 2017/D12, which gives guidance to the legal personal representative (LPR) of a deceased person as to circumstances where the LPR may be personally liable for the deceased’s tax liability.

In January 2017 “Deemed to be a “fixed trust” – draft guidelines” written by Sladen Legal's Daniel Smedley and Patricia Martins was published in the Tax Institute’s Journal, Taxation in Australia.