Legal news
The Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No 6) Bill 2014 (the Bill) was introduced to Parliament on 30 October 2014.
Schedule 1 of the Bill seeks to amend the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to extend the CGT roll-over relief afforded under certain replacement asset roll-overs to revenue assets and trading stock.
Sladen Legal is a proud sponsor of the Women in Property Committee of the Urban Development Institute of Australia (Vic Division) (UDIA).
Last night, Sarah Rizk, a Principal in Sladen Legal’s Property and Development Group and Chair of the Women in Property Committee, moderated a Minute Mentoring event jointly hosted by the Women in Property Committee and Outlook Committees of the UDIA. The aim of the event was to provide young and mid-level members of the UDIA access to senior people in the industry who they may not otherwise have a chance to interact with. The event launched a new series of events to be run by the Committees that will provide greater opportunities for “up and comers” in the urban development industry to make better, more valuable connections.
Many small to medium sized businesses face disputes between shareholders, who can often be family members. These shareholder disputes can be very expensive to resolve and typically take the form of “oppression” claims commenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria, under the provisions of s 233 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Although individual disputes differ, they all have in common allegations that the affairs of a company have been conducted in an oppressive manner.
The Victorian government passed the Justice Legislation Amendment (Succession and Surrogacy) Act 2014 on 16 October, prior to going into caretaker mode leading up to the election.
The Act includes significant amendments to the laws governing the contesting of wills.
Since the removal of any relationship requirement between a claimant and a deceased person in 1996, the courts have dealt with a wide range of claims. These claims are not only by spouses and children of the deceased person, but also grandchildren, nephews and nieces, carers and even neighbours.
The Supreme Court of Western Australia recently found a director personally liable for misleading and deceptive conduct by reason of the director signing a Letter of Offer on behalf of the company, which contained certain representations. While the case dealt with provisions of the Fair Trading Act 1987 (WA), both the Fair Trading Act 1999 (Vic) and the Australian Consumer Law have equivalent provisions.
“If you’re contracting out, and the price seems too good to be true, someone’s probably getting ripped off. And if it turns out to be the workers, and it turns out you half knew that, then you are in danger yourself of having been involved in a contravention”
These comments were made by Natalie James of the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) last month after the workplace regulator settled its long running prosecution with retail giant Coles, in connection with the unprecedented ‘trolley collectors case’. In an environment where outsourcing is prevalent and often complex, the prosecution of Coles has been a sobering reminder to the business community that lawmakers and regulators are sharpening their view on chain of responsibility.
