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Sladen Snippet - New WET rebate eligibility criteria and cap reduction receives assent

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Sladen Snippet - New WET rebate eligibility criteria and cap reduction receives assent

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.

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Sladen Snippet - ATO provides additional 7 years to repay UPE under sub-trust arrangements maturing in the 2017/18 income years

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Sladen Snippet - ATO provides additional 7 years to repay UPE under sub-trust arrangements maturing in the 2017/18 income years

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.

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Sladen Snippet - ATO guidance on liability of a legal personal representative of a deceased person

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Sladen Snippet - ATO guidance on liability of a legal personal representative of a deceased person

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.

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Sladen Snippet - Additional stamp duty trigger for option agreements

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Sladen Snippet - Additional stamp duty trigger for option agreements

As part of the Victorian State Budget, a number of stamp duty changes have been proposed, many of which have received significant media attention (including the abolition of the off the plan duty concession for investors, the abolition of stamp duty for some first home buyers, and the removal of the blanket duty exemption for transfers between spouses).

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Sladen Snippet – death benefit pensions may be commuted into accumulation prior to 1 July 2017

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Sladen Snippet – death benefit pensions may be commuted into accumulation prior to 1 July 2017

There is some good news and some bad news with the ATO’s release of Practical Compliance Guide PCG 2017/6. The good news is that spouses in receipt of death benefit pensions may commute their death benefit pensions in excess of the transfer balance cap back into accumulation before 1 July 2017. The bad news is that this concession does not apply to non-spouses and won’t apply after 30 June 2017.

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Sladen Snippet - New GST remission requirements for purchasers of newly constructed residential premises or land in new subdivisions

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Sladen Snippet - New GST remission requirements for purchasers of newly constructed residential premises or land in new subdivisions

It was announced as part of the 2017 Federal Budget that from 1 July 2018, purchasers of “newly constructed residential premises” or “new land subdivisions” will be required to remit GST directly to the Australian Taxation Office as part of settlement. Details have not yet been provided on how this measure will be implemented or operate.

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Sladen Snippet – Last chance to transfer property between spouses duty free

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Sladen Snippet – Last chance to transfer property between spouses duty free

The Victorian government has announced in its 2017 budget that it plans to abolish, from 1 July 2017, the spouse to spouse duty exemption, unless it is a transfer of a principal place of residence or a transfer as a result of a relationship breakdown.

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Sladen Snippet – ATO gives guidance on how to commute pensions by 30 June 2017 for the transfer balance cap measure

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Sladen Snippet – ATO gives guidance on how to commute pensions by 30 June 2017 for the transfer balance cap measure

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2017/5 which gives guidance as to how trustees of self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) can commute pensions by 30 June 2017 in order to comply with the new transfer balance cap measure.

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Sladen Snippet - More flexible small business restructure rollover and new corporate tax cuts passed by Senate

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Sladen Snippet - More flexible small business restructure rollover and new corporate tax cuts passed by Senate

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan) Bill 2016 was recently passed by the Senate containing amendments to progressively reduce the corporate tax rate and increase the small business turnover thresholds for access to small business tax concessions. 

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Sladen Snippet - Commissioner is under no duty to issue amended land tax assessments

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Sladen Snippet - Commissioner is under no duty to issue amended land tax assessments

The High Court of Australia has recently allowed an appeal against a decision of the Victoria Court of Appeal and held that the Commissioner was not under a duty to issue amended assessments and refund an excess amount of land tax that has erroneously been paid by a taxpayer.

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Partner is denied access to partnership’s carried forward tax losses

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Partner is denied access to partnership’s carried forward tax losses

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has recently held that tax losses were not available to a partner in a property development partnership.

Sladen Snippet - Intangible assets and improvements to pre-CGT assets

Sladen Snippet - Intangible assets and improvements to pre-CGT assets

On 25 January 2017, the Commissioner of Taxation (Commissioner) released Taxation Determination, TD 2017/1 (Determination) concerning whether intangible capital improvements made to a pre-CGT asset can be a separate asset for the purpose of subsections 108-70(2) or (3) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.

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Income from incidental activity is part of entity’s annual turnover and might bar CGT concessions

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Income from incidental activity is part of entity’s annual turnover and might bar CGT concessions

The Federal Court of Australia denied the application of the CGT small business concession on the basis that an unusual activity carried on by an associated entity to the taxpayer contributed to the aggregated annual turnover of that entity to be more than $2,000,000.