Expansion of the Vacant Residential Land Tax, from 1 January 2025, will start to capture holiday homes outside of inner/middle Melbourne. Therefore, holiday homeowners should consider their vacant residential land tax position.

The NSW Supreme Court decision of Cihan Family Trust v Cihan Family Superannuation Fund [2023] NSWSC 1289 found that a transfer of land from a family trust to a SMSF should be reversed on the basis of unconscionable conduct of a son against his father.

The case of Corbisieri v NM Superannuation Proprietary Limited [2023] FCA 1319  involved an appeal by the mother of a deceased against the decision of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) to uphold a BDBN to benefit the de facto spouse of her late son, which was to be funded out of life insurance proceeds in AMP Superannuation.

The concept of goodwill in a legal context is different to the concept of goodwill when it is used is an accounting context.  

In this Judgment of the NSW Supreme Court, a binding death benefit nomination (BDBN) signed on the date of death of the sole member of a self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) was upheld. Challenges to the BDBN’s validity, by the SMSF trustee and two of the deceased’s executors, based on lack of capacity and unconscionability both failed.

In the current economic landscape, business owners may be considering a restructure, merger, or demerger to adapt, survive, or enable growth.

The Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) has released guidance for employers on how to comply with the new positive duty under section 47C of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (the Sex Discrimination Act).

The Federal Government’s Mid-Year Economic and Financial Outlook 2023-24 (MYEFO) (released on 13 December 2023) has again raised the legality of the ability of the States to impose foreign purchaser land transfer (stamp) duty surcharge and foreign owner land tax (together, the foreign surcharges).

Sladen Legal are happy to announce the exciting addition of Nicholas Clifton as a Principal Lawyer in the State Taxes team.  

Sladen Legal is proud to announce these well-deserved promotions effective 1 January 2024.

Section 99B, the “sequel” to 2022’s s 100A focus, may make taxpayers and advisers wish they had a bigger boat.

Recent amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 expand employee rights to make flexible working arrangement requests.  The changes also require employers to follow a detailed process upon receipt of such requests. The amendments also permit employees to escalate their requests and seek orders from the Fair Work Commission (FWC).

A recent Full Federal Court decision reflects the diversity of issues which can arise in the complex world of discretionary trusts.

On the setting up of a self managed superannuation fund (SMSF), the starting position is that, all members are required to be individual trustees or directors of a corporate trustee. However, life events such as incapacity and death, may require someone to fill the shoes of the replaced individual.

This paper has been built on a previous paper on the superannuation guarantee (SG) regime, titled Super Guarantee – no longer the toothless tiger. That paper was designed to take a holistic examination of the SG regime. In this paper, we have built on that approach and added a number of developments, including:

On Thursday 16 November 2023, the Federal Court handed down the decision McD Asia Pacific LLC v Hungry Jack’s Pty Ltd [2023] FCA 1412 (McD) where it was held the trade mark ‘BIG JACK’ and ‘MEGA JACK’ were not deceptively similar to McDonald’s registered trade marks ‘BIG MAC’ and ‘MEGA MAC’.

On 22 September 2023 the Commonwealth government released the Personal Property Securities Amendment Bill 2023 and amending regulations for public consultation until 17 November 2023. The aim is intended to simplify the use of the law, in particular the registration process, and clarify its application, especially around enforcement priorities.

In an interesting decision traversing both industrial relations and public international law, the Federal Court has found that the former Indian High Commissioner to Australia committed significant breaches of the Fair Work Act between September 2015 and May 2016. 

The ATO has a new collaborative and tailored approach to managing the collection and recovery of disputed debts.

Sladen Legal has been recognised as a Third Tier Leading Tax Law Firm – Victoria, 2023 in the recently released Doyles Guide Victoria, 2023. Doyles Guide is a comprehensive and independent directory which showcases Australia’s best firms and lawyers.