On 18 September 2017, the Government released for public consultation exposure draft legislation to amend the Income Tax Rates Act 1986 to confirm that companies that earn predominantly passive income will not be eligible for the lower company tax rate.

On 14 September 2017, the Government released for public consultation exposure draft legislation to implement the announcement in the 2017 Budget that from 1 January 2018 the CGT discount for eligible resident investors in qualifying affordable housing to 60% (from 50%). The change is part of the government’s policy to encourage increased investment in affordable rental housing.

On 14 September 2017, the government introduced to the Parliament the Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Measures No. 6) Bill 2017 (the Bill) that includes amendments to the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999. The Government announced these changes in the 2017 Budget on 9 May 2017.

The Federal Government has this week announced a number of proposed reforms aimed at those individuals, entities and advisors who undertake or facilitate illegal phoenix activity.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) published the final version of the Practical Compliance Guidelines (PCG) 2016/16, which provides guidance in relation to what will be considered by the Commissioner when exercising his discretion to treat an interest in the income or capital of a trust as being a fixed entitlement and by extension whether a trust is a fixed trust for the purposes of the tax law.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) recently held in the case of MSAUS v FC of T that Division 135 of the Good and Services Tax (GST) Act did not apply to impose an increasing adjustment [an amount of GST on an otherwise GST-free transaction] to the sale of leased residential apartments

Further to our Sladen Snippet, we are reminding and encouraging businesses with interests in producing and selling wine (and who rely on the WET Rebate) to ensure they have properly secured trade mark registration.

As previously discussed in this forum, changes to the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) Rebate eligibility criteria and cap reduction were announced in December 2016 by the Turnbull Government. These reforms received assent on 23 August 2017 and bring significant changes to the entitlement to the WET producer rebate.

Further to our previous snippets on the ATO’s new transfer balance report (TBAR) regime (see here and here), the ATO has announced that it will consult on two alternative options for the TBAR regime.

The enforceability of vendor restraint clauses contained in sale of business agreements is currently under review in the Supreme Court of Victoria in the case of Southern Cross Computer Systems P/L (ACN 005 770 598) and Ingenio Group P/L (ACN 610 396 748) v Palmer, Christopher Anthony; Faithfull, Jamie and Jakimoski, Zoran [2017] VSC 412.

Practical Compliance Guideline (PCG) 2017/13 confirms the ability for a sub-trust arrangement using the 7-year option 1 investment agreement to be converted into a compliant loan, as described under section 109-N of Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 36). The ability to refinance UPE for an additional 7 years may be advantageous to taxpayers that would otherwise have been required to repay such arrangements by either 30 June 2017 or 30 June 2018.

In May 2015, the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office produced a report which was titled ‘Victoria’s Consumer Protection Framework for Building Construction’. The report was highly critical of the level of protection given to consumers in the domestic building space.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released for public comment draft Practical Compliance Guideline (PCG) 2017/D12, which gives guidance to the legal personal representative (LPR) of a deceased person as to circumstances where the LPR may be personally liable for the deceased’s tax liability.

As part of the Victorian State Budget, a number of stamp duty changes have been proposed, many of which have received significant media attention (including the abolition of the off the plan duty concession for investors, the abolition of stamp duty for some first home buyers, and the removal of the blanket duty exemption for transfers between spouses).

As reported in our previous Sladen Snippet, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is currently developing a new self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) event based reporting regime to be called the Transfer Balance Account Report or TBAR.

The ATO has published a new draft taxation determination that alters their previous published interpretation of the meaning of “distributes” for the purposes of the family trust distribution tax (FTDT).

Self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) are not required to obtain an actuarial certificate if 100% of the SMSF is in “pension phase” for 100% of the year. That is, the SMSF uses the segregated method for the whole year. But what happens for SMSFs that use the segregated method for the 2017 year but, because of the transfer balance cap measure, have to commute back their pensions to $1.6 million by 30 June 2017?

On 31 May 2017, Phil Broderick of Sladen Legal presented at a SISFA webinar on the new super laws and estate planning. His presentation covered:

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has just handed down 2 significant decisions, namely the Annual Wage Review decision and the rollout of the decision to reduce Sunday and Public Holiday penalty rates in select awards. These decisions will have implications for employers from 1 July 2017.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Measures No. 2) Bill 2017 has been tabled in Parliament. The Bill proposes to make two important changes to transition to retirement income streams (TRISs). Firstly, to allow certain TRISs to qualify for “retirement phase” and, secondly, to ensure TRISs qualify for the cost base reset.