Legal news
On 28 October, 2015 Sladen Legal delivered a presentation on various topics in the area of Hot Issues in Structuring and Rewarding Employees.
Topics presented were:
In Alderton and Commissioner of Taxation (Taxation) [2015] AATA 807 (16 October 2015), the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) upheld the Commissioner’s decision to assess a trust beneficiary to tax on a distribution from the trust, despite her attempted disclaimer in November 2014 of “the entirety of any interest accrued by her in the past or which may accrue in the future in the income or corpus of the trust fund”, with such disclaimer to take effect from the date of settlement of the trust.
Failure to pay to an employee proper notice resulted in a HR Manager and the company she worked for being fined in the Federal Circuit Court in Adelaide.
The employee was paid some notice, but not the whole of the notice period required by the Fair Work Act. This underpayment resulted in the employee being underpaid $181.66 (two days’ notice) as a result.
The HR Manager conceded in the hearing that she knew of the requirements to pay proper notice, but the company claimed confusion had arisen as a result of the interaction of the provisions of the workers compensation legislation in South Australia regarding termination of employment and the Fair Work Act. The Federal Circuit Court did not accept this as a reasonable excuse, stating the company should have paid the notice as provided by the Act.
When people think of self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) they mostly think of a vehicle to provide retirement benefits and their concessional tax treatment. In contrast, the asset protection benefit provided by SMSFs is often not considered.
This topic was addressed by Sladen Legal’s Phil Broderick, who delivered a presentation on SMSFs and Asset Protection, as part of the Television Education Network’s 3rd Annual Asset Protection Conference, on 15 October 2015.
Division 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 can operate to deem a dividend to be paid by a private company that is a subsidiary member of an income tax consolidated group (subsidiary).
If a subsidiary makes a loan to a shareholder (of the Head Company of the tax consolidated group) or their associate in a manner that evokes the application of the “deemed dividend” provisions in s 109D, the relevant time for complying with the Division 7A provisions would be the “lodgment day” of the Subsidiary’s income tax return for the relevant financial year (s 109D(1)(b)) – however, a Subsidiary member of a tax consolidated group is not required to lodge an income tax return.
Australian-owned private companies are now exempt from public disclosure taxation rules, as the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (Better Targeting the Income Tax Transparency Laws) Bill 2015 (the Bill) passed through the Senate yesterday.
The Bill amends the Taxation Administration Act 1953 to exempt Australian-owned private companies from the requirement that the Commissioner of Taxation publish information about a corporate tax entity with a total income equal to or exceeding $100 million for an income year.
The Senate has passed a number of amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009, however the Government has been unable to attract sufficient support from cross-benchers for several key proposed changes, which have now been omitted from the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014.
The passed amendments are significant and include:
This month we unveil our new quarterly newsletter from the Employment, Industrial Relations & OHS team, Employment Essentials.
Employment Essentials will be reporting on topical issues in HR and bringing you the latest updates in employment law. Plus much more.
A typical Self Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF), being the classic “mum and dad” SMSF, generally transitions pretty smoothly through the lifecycle of its members. This includes the accumulation of assets in the growth/accumulation stage and managing benefit payments through the pension stage. It also usually transitions smoothly on the death of the first with the ability to pay a death pension to the survivor.
However, there is one event that can create significant transition issues for SMSFs, being the death of the surviving spouse, particularly in instances where the fund holds lumpy assets such as real estate.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has found that a confectionary company directly discriminated against a 63 year-old production worker when it dismissed him because of a disability, and has ordered the company to pay him $20,000 compensation for the shock caused by the dismissal.
The worker had been employed by the company for almost 30 years and had previously suffered chronic “tennis elbow” (which had arisen as a result of his employment but had fully resolved at the time of dismissal). Relying upon a medical report that warned the company the condition could flare up if he maintained his regular duties, the company terminated the employee’s employment effective immediately.
