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.

We previously reported here and here on the Full Federal Court decision of Pintarich v Deputy Commissioner of Taxation [2018] FCAFC 79 (Pintarich) and the unsuccessful application for special leave to the High Court.

As reported recently by The Age and ABC News, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is targeting property investors particularly taxpayers who may have made mistakes, errors or false claims on their tax returns in relation to property owned for investment purposes.

In Deputy Commissioner of Taxation v Pedley (No 2) (2018) FCA 2015 (Pedley), the Federal Court confirmed the wide discretion available to the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) to allocate payments made to it for tax debts especially where the taxpayer has not provided explicit direction as to what payments should be applied to which debts.

The High Court in Commissioner of Taxation v Tomaras & Ors (2018) HCA 62 (Tomaras) has confirmed the Federal Circuit Court had jurisdiction to make orders altering the property interests of parties to a marriage substituting one party for the other party as sole debtor to the Commissioner of Taxation (Commissioner) in respect of income tax liabilities owed by the first party.

In Nationwide Towing & Transport Pty Ltd v Commissioner of State Revenue (No 2) [2018] VSC 609, the Victorian Supreme Court has handed down another decision* against the Victorian State Revenue Office by setting aside payroll tax assessments issued in relation to payments to subcontractors.

As we have previously reported, the Government announced in the 2017 Budget that amendments would be made to Division 7A incorporating recommendations from the 2014 Board of Taxation’s final report on the ‘Post Implementation Review of Division 7A of Part III of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936’ (the earlier report).

We reported on the Full Federal Court decision of Pintarich v Deputy Commissioner of Taxation [2018] FCAFC 79 here.

The Victorian Supreme Court in the decision of MD Commercial Pty Ltd & AJ Commercial Pty Ltd v Commissioner of State Revenue [2018] VSC 560 confirmed that certain transfers of land to trustees were not exempt from duty under section 35 of the Duties Act 2000.

The case of Wu v FCT [2018] FCA 1339 illustrates the importance of correctly stating the grounds for a taxation objection.

Lately, revenue authorities have focused heavily on investigating medical, dental, optometry and other allied health clinics.

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. 

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).

As reported in our earlier article on Harding v FCT [2018] FCA 837, the Federal Court ruled that the taxpayer who lived and worked in Bahrain was an Australian tax resident.

Foreign companies that may be controlled by an Australian entity should review their key decision-making procedures following the newly issued Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Taxation Ruling, TR 2018/5 (TR 2018/5) which gives guidance on when the ATO could find a foreign company’s central management and control (CMC) is located in Australia.

The ATO are giving a second chance to certain taxpayers who are generally compliant with their tax obligations but may have made an inadvertent error or taken a tax position which is not reasonably arguable.

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.

In the 2016-2017 Economic and Fiscal Outlook (http://www.budget.gov.au/2016-17/content/myefo/download/09-Appendix-A-Revenue.pdf), the Government announced that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) would be allowed to report to credit reporting agencies the tax debt information of entities that don’t effectively engage with the ATO to manage those tax debts.