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.

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

On 8 March 2017, the Government released its latest consultation paper on the foreign investment framework. 

In the digital age, brands are increasingly making use of innovative marketing and advertising such as native or integrated advertising, social media accounts, bloggers and Instagram influencers. These strategies have been shown to increase audience engagement and brand awareness, and are an effective use of a marketing budget. 

The Fair Work Commission’s (FWC) long-awaited decision on penalty rates applying on weekends, public holidays and late nights has been handed down this morning.

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.

With the new super laws commencing from 1 July 2017, advisors and trustees of self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) are starting to consider whether they need to update their SMSF trust deed or their pension documents.

In September 2016, an article written by Sladen Legal's Phil Broderick, Will Monotti and Ashleigh Eynaud was published in the Tax Institute’s Journal, Taxation in Australia.

This article addresses how trust deed variation clauses vary from trust to trust and gives examples of some of the problematic ones we’ve seen.

The ATO has released answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the ATO’s safe harbour rules for related party limited recourse borrowing arrangement (LRBA) loans to super funds. The safe harbour rules are contained in PCG 2016/5 and have been discussed in a previous snippet. 

With that date fast approaching it is important that SMSF trustees look to rectify any outstanding related party non-commercial LRBA loans in the next couple of weeks.

There seems to be some confusion about the fate of transition to retirement income streams (TRIS). TRISs will not be abolished from 1 July 2017. Rather, they will no longer qualify for “pension phase” (or retirement phase under the new terminology). 

The new super laws are the biggest changes to super since 2007. Given that most of the measures commence on 1 July 2017, there are a number of planning matters to consider prior (and after) that date. 

One of the most significant consequences of the transfer balance cap is the effect it has on the payment of death benefits. This will affect all couples who have a combined superannuation balance of $1.6 million. 

Under the transfer balance cap measure market linked pensions (MLPs) are lumped with other defined benefit pensions. Defined pensions are treated differently to account based pensions given the inability to commute such pensions.

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.

On 06 December 2016, the Commissioner of Taxation issued the Discussion Paper TDP 2016/1 on issues concerning electronic distribution platforms (EDPs). The discussion paper seeks feedback in relation to the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) rules for digital suppliers and services affecting EDPs from 1 July 2017.

The transfer balance cap is the new limit on how much a member can have in their pension account and accordingly is a limit on how much a super fund can have in “pension phase”. Income and capital gains are tax free to the extent they are in pension phase. To the extent that a super fund is in “accumulation phase” its income is taxed at 15% and capital gains, on assets held for more than 12 months, are taxed at 10%. 

In light of the 2016-17 Federal Budget handed down earlier this year, followed by consultation with participants in the wine industry, the Turnbull Government has announced on 02 December 2016 reforms to the WET Rebate. The purpose of these reforms, as stated by Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Small Business, Kelly O’Dwyer is to address “distortions in the market through the misuse and exploitation of the WET Rebate scheme”.

The headline items to this measure is that the non-concessional contributions cap will be reduced from $180K to $100K, the “bring forward rule” will be reduced from $540K to $300K and that members with account balances over $1.6 million will not be able to make non-concessional contributions. But like most of the new measures there are additional complexities to the new non-concessional cap measures.