Many office-based employees have been working from home due to COVID-19 restrictions. This has posed obvious logistical and operational challenges for many employers.

The AAT has rejected the Federal Commissioner of Taxation’s (Commissioner) view that a discretionary payment received by an employee upon his termination should be taxed as ordinary income. Despite the payment being made upon the termination of the employee the Commissioner argued that it was received in respect of their employment as it was calculated in relation to fees earnt.

In this 11th and final part of our payroll tax series, we explore the payroll tax de-grouping provisions. While we will refer to the Victorian legislation, similar provisions exist in all states and territories due to a harmonisation of the law.

In the recent decision of MWWD v FC of T 2020 ATC (16 October 2020), the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) found that payments to a contractor repair technician did not trigger a superannuation contribution/charge obligation under the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (Cth) (SG Act).

Under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act) a disqualified person cannot be a trustee or director of a corporate trustee of a self managed superannuation fund. Where a person is disqualified because of a conviction, they can apply for a waiver of the disqualification status within 14 days from the date of conviction.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has begun issuing notices for its compliance program focusing on the “Next 5,000” private groups in Australia (Next 5000 Program).

The Full Federal Court in FCT v Healius [2020] FCAFC 173 has upheld the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) appeal of the Federal Court decision in Healius v COT [2019] FCA 2011 which considered whether lump sum payments made by a medical centre to its doctors were assessable on revenue or capital account.

The trustee of a discretionary trust may benefit those who fall under the definition of “beneficiaries” in the trust’s deed. Sometimes, the scope of that definition is unclear.

Many business owners may be considering a restructure, merger, or demerger in the current economic environment to adapt, sustain, or promote growth in these tumultuous times. A change in a corporate structure typically entails either the change of ownership interests in the entire business or the transfer of specific assets of the business.

Many business owners may be considering a restructure, merger, or demerger in the current economic environment to adapt, sustain, or promote growth in these tumultuous times.

Where super guarantee contributions are not made by 28 days after the relevant quarter, a superannuation guarantee charge (SGC) liability is triggered. If the contributions are made after the due date, then, in certain circumstances, those late contributions can be offset against the SGC liability.

From 1 July 2014, the ATO was granted power to issue administrative penalties to self managed superannuation fund SMSF) trustees for breaches of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act).

In advancing their continued attention toward the taxation of cryptocurrencies, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has published a reminder for taxpayers to ensure they are working out capital gains and losses correctly;

While the application of land transfer (stamp) duty is reasonably straight forward for land transfers such as a purchase of property under a contract of sale, the application of duty in relation to declarations of trust can be complicated.

Event Based Reporting Obligations for the transfer balance cap using TBAR

1. Succession planning – recent cases on BDBNs

SMSF Update – Your Ultimate 2020 Review and Forecast Slide Overview

A common question we receive is whether, and what sort of, a valuation is required to calculate land transfer duty for related party property dealings.

Advising clients on business structuring requires the consideration, and assessment, of the factors that should be considered when a client is about to commence the operation of a business.

The headlines focus on personal tax cuts, the deficit, and the increase in debt. However, this year’s Budget is a mixture of tax measures – business and personal - to boost spending, create jobs, and help the economy grow out of the COVID-19 induced recession.

Over the last 18 months several decisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Federal and Full Federal Courts considered the application of Australian tax residency laws including Harding v FCT [2019] FCAFC 29, FCT v Addy [2020] FCAFC 135, Stockton v FCT [2019] FCA 1679, Handsley v FCT [2019] AATA 917 and Coelho v FCT [2020] AATA 2474.