Legal news
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released a welcome draft legislative instrument, Self Managed Superannuation Funds (COVID-19 Rental income deferrals - In-house Asset Exclusion) Determination 2020 (SPR 2020/D2), that will exclude COVID-19 related rental deferrals from being ‘loans’ under the in-house asset rules.
In the recent decision of R -v- T [2020] WASCA 109, the Western Australia (WA) Court of Appeal has upheld interim property orders of the WA Family Court to set aside contributions made by a de facto husband to an SMSF.
As referred to in our previous articles, the State Revenue Legislation Further Amendment Bill 2020 (NSW) has now received royal assent on 24 June 2020.
The Victorian Court of Appeal’s decision in MD Commercial Pty Ltd v Commissioner of State Revenue [2019] VSCA 295 was a culmination of the battle between the Victorian Commissioner of State Revenue and the taxpayers’ statutory interpretation of a duty exemption contained in s 35 of the Duties Act 2000 (Vic) (Act) and whether the trustee had to be in a “bare trustee” relationship with no active powers being held by the trustee.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) position for several years has been a foreign beneficiary distributed a capital gain made by an Australian discretionary trust on an asset that is not taxable Australian property is assessed on the capital gain even though that would not occur if the foreign resident made the gain directly, or through a fixed trust. Some commentators disagree with that view, the Federal Court in a recent case agreed with the ATO position in what may be the first skirmish of a battle through the courts on this issue.
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 State Revenue Office (SRO) have announced that its current “practical approach” in relation to whether trustees of discretionary trusts trigger the foreign duty surcharge will cease from 1 March 2020.
As outlined in our previous article, the State Revenue Further Amendment Bill 2019 (NSW) was introduced to NSW Legislative Assembly on Tuesday 22 October 2019, and proposed to make changes to New South Wales land tax and duty legislation.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) sought to address this question through a public determination (first issued in draft as TD 2018/D3) that considered a range of features of an arrangement, that when considered together, were deemed to have resulted in the creation of a new trust over assets formerly held by an original trust.
The Federal Government has introduced the Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Measures No. 3) Bill 2019 (Bill), which seeks to ensure that tax concessions available to minors on income on distributions by the trustee of a testamentary trust will only apply in respect of income that is generated from assets of the deceased estate transferred to that testamentary trust (or the proceeds of the disposal or investment of those assets).
As outlined in our previous article, under the proposed changes to New South Wales land tax and duty legislation, a trustee of a discretionary trust (including testamentary trusts) will be deemed to be a “foreign trust” if the terms of the trust do not prevent a foreign person from being a beneficiary of the discretionary trust. Importantly, these changes are proposed to have retrospective effect to the 2017, 2018 and 2019 land tax years and can catch dutiable transactions back to 21 June 2016.
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