Sladen Thoughts

Stay up to date with Legal Industry news and updates. Sladen Legal provide regular updates on changes and news in the Australian Legal Industry.

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Sladen snippet - ATO extends transitional compliance approach to NALE for another financial year

As previously discussed here, the definition of non-arm’s length income (NALI) under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 was amended in mid-2018 to include non-arm’s length expenses or NALE. NALE includes not just an expenditure, but also a loss or outgoing that is lower than an arm’s length amount, and also includes where there is a nil amount (ie, no expenditure).

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Sladen Snippet - COVID relief measures: ATO confirms how LRBA relief interacts with Division 7A

As discussed here, as part of the ATO COVID-19 administrative concessions, the ATO announced that temporary repayment relief could be offered for limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBA) loans. The repayment relief must reflect similar terms to what commercial banks offered for real estate investments loans as a result of COVID-19.

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Sladen Snippet - Rural land leased to tenant found not to be used for primary production and subject to land tax

In the recent decision of Chandrala v Chief Commissioner of State Revenue [2021] NSWCATAD 50, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) has determined that rural land, that was leased to a tenant, was not exempt from land tax under the primary production exemption.

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Payroll Tax Update: Commissioner’s Appeal to the High Court Denied, A Win for Taxpayers

The NSW Chief Commissioner of State Revenue’s (Commissioner) application to the High Court for special leave to appeal the NSW Court of Appeal’s decision in Chief Commissioner of State Revenue v Downer EDI Engineering Pty Ltd [2020] NSWCA 126 has been denied, the High Court finding the appeal “would have insufficient prospects of success”.

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Allocation of professional firm profits – the ATO moves the goalposts!

On 1 March 2021, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) released Draft Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2021/D2 Allocation of professional firm profits – ATO compliance approach (Draft PCG) that sets out the ATO’s proposed compliance approach to the allocation of profits by professional firms.

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Sladen Snippet – Small business CGT Concessions: Is your business primarily deriving rent?

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has issued Taxation Determination TD 2021/2 that contains the ATO view that companies which carry on a business will be unable to benefit from the small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions if the relevant asset is mainly used to derive rent (TD 2021/2 was issued as Draft TD 2019/D4 that we discussed here).

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Bitcoin's back - but the ATO never left

With news and social media feeds being filled with tales of cryptocurrency (in particular bitcoin) prices fluctuating many taxpayers are making, or considering making, investments. However before jumping in taxpayers should understand that the anonymity that was originally touted as the shining crown of cryptocurrencies is not the invisibility cloak many may think it to be. What does the ATO really know about your cryptocurrency holdings and what do you need to disclose?

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