Read The Trust Deed: Pope’s Case - Unpaid Present Entitlement and Bad Debt Deductions

Read The Trust Deed: Pope’s Case - Unpaid Present Entitlement and Bad Debt Deductions

A recent case in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (Pope v FC, known as Pope’s Case) is of interest to taxpayers and their advisers, with respect to the characterisation of unpaid trust entitlements (UPEs) as loans.

In this case, Deputy President Hack characterised amounts previously distributed to the taxpayer, Pope, from the Pope Family Trust, and remaining unpaid as being debt at the time, that the amounts were written off by the Pope as being bad. Pope had previously included the UPEs in his assessable income in the income years in which the distributions were made and sought to obtain a deduction for those UPEs when they were irrecoverable from the Trust.

Project DO IT Alert

Project DO IT Alert

A reminder that voluntary disclosures pursuant to the Australian Tax Office’s (ATO) “Project DO IT” initiative must be made before 19 December 2014. Having regard to the difficulties often encountered and the general time frames required to obtain necessary information sourced from offshore third parties, the time to prepare for, and draft, voluntary disclosures taxpayers considering making a voluntary disclosure pursuant to the Project DO IT program would be well advised to consider their eligibility for the Project DO IT initiative and begin their disclosure preparation as soon as practicably possible.

Schools, negligence, and liability for psychiatric injury: the Doulis case

Schools, negligence, and liability for psychiatric injury: the Doulis case

On September 5 2014, the Victorian Supreme Court ordered the State of Victoria to pay damages in excess of $1.2 million to a former teacher at Werribee Secondary College, after he sued in negligence for the school’s failure to prevent what became a debilitating psychiatric injury.

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Sladen Snippet – Power to correct errors on the PPSR

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Sladen Snippet – Power to correct errors on the PPSR

Justice Gleeson of the Federal Court of Australia has provided further clarification surrounding the power of the Registrar to correct errors on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) in the case of SFS Projects Australia Pty Ltd v Registrar of Personal Property Securities [2014] FCA 846.

In this case, SFS Projects Australia Pty Ltd (SFS Projects) was assigned three security interests that were already registered on the PPSR. A mistake was made by the assignor who incorrectly changed the end date of the registrations, instead of changing the name of the secured party, to SFS Projects. If the error was not corrected, SFS Projects would be deprived of the benefits of a continuously perfected security interest under the Personal Property Securities Act 2010 (PPSA).

Unit trusts and superannuation – does the look-through approach exist?

Unit trusts and superannuation – does the look-through approach exist?

Based on the principle of the separation of legal entities, it would not be expected that the actions of the trustee of a unit trust (or other trust) would be imputed on its unit holders. But does that hold true under the superannuation system? For instance, can the actions of a unit trust trustee cause its unit holding superannuation fund trustee to breach the superannuation laws? Or, to put it more succinctly, does the “look-through approach” exist?

Is Your Business Name Really Protected?

Is Your Business Name Really Protected?

One of our clients recently rebranded her business, changing its name in the process. Her accountant had diligently registered a new business name for her. Unknowingly, she’d chosen a name that is similar to a competitor’s name – but different enough for ASIC to allow both registrations. Inevitably, the competitor threatened legal action.

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Sladen Snippet - No Restraint, No Worries

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Sladen Snippet - No Restraint, No Worries

APT Technology Pty Ltd (APT) won a rare injunction in the Federal Court last week, obtaining orders that prevented a former employee from soliciting or dealing with APT clients for five months, even though the employee was not subject to any contractual restraint of trade obligation.

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SMSFs Engaging in Property Developments

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SMSFs Engaging in Property Developments

This paper was presented by Phil Broderick on SMSFs Engaging in Property Developments, at the Ninth Annual SMSF Conference of the Television Education Network, on 4-5 September, 2014.

Self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) have been carrying on property development activities ever since they came into existence. Yet despite that, there is still a common concern that such activities will cause the SMSF to become non-compliant, or subject to penalties, on the basis that such activities, and in particular undertaking a property development business, are prohibited.

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Sladen Snippet - ATO releases guidelines regarding professional firms

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Sladen Snippet - ATO releases guidelines regarding professional firms

New guidelines released by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will assess tax compliance risks associated with the allocation of profits from professional services firms operating in the accounting, architectural, engineering, financial services, legal and medical professions.