News

The ATO has announced that it will be contacting some SMSF trustees in November 2016 to participate in a survey about the use of ‘limited recourse borrowing arrangements’ (‘LRBAs’) to acquire assets for their SMSF. The ATO will email a sample of SMSFs that reported LRBA assets on their 2015 SMSF annual return to invite...

The ATO has reported that the building and construction industry represents a disproportionate amount of its debt book, and has identified worrying trends that affect the industry. Clients in the industry are encouraged to contact us regarding outstanding debts, as the ATO may be able to offer a range of payment options to help them...

The ATO has issued an information sheet to let taxpayers know that money earned from renting out a room in a house is rental income. This applies to rooms rented by traditional means or through a sharing economy website or app. Also, taxpayers can only claim expenses related to the part of the house they...

In a recent case, the AAT confirmed that a taxpayer was a resident of Australia for taxation purposes while he was living in Oman. The taxpayer had left Australia in January 2008 to work in Oman, and he ended up working 21 months in Oman before returning to Australia permanently in September 2009. Before leaving...

Where a buyer commences to hold all of the shares in a company (including a company acting as trustee of a trust), they are highly likely to be appointed as a director of that company. Although being a director in itself does not make the director personally liable for the debts of the company, there...

From 1 July 2016, if you invest in a qualifying early stage innovation company (ESIC), you may be eligible for tax incentives. The tax incentives provide eligible investors who purchase new shares in an ESIC with a: • non-refundable carry forward tax offset equal to 20% of the amount paid for their qualifying investments. This...

Earlier in the year, we reported that an unknown source had leaked 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm of Mossack Fonseca – these are now referred to as the ‘Panama Papers’. Basically, the documents illustrated how many wealthy individuals are hiding their money and income from tax authorities around the world. The Commissioner...

Goods imported into Australia – often by consumers using the internet – which cost less than $1,000 are currently GST-free. On May 3 2016, as part of its package of Budget Night announcements, the Federal government proposed that, as of 1 July 2017, this low-value threshold (‘LVT’) of $1,000 will be abolished. The removal of...

In a recent case before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), amended assessments issued to a taxpayer by the ATO, which were based on the amounts of unexplained deposits to the taxpayer’s bank accounts (in some years, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, in others, millions), have been largely upheld. The total further tax claimed...

The Department of Human Services (DHS) (which operates Centrelink) has launched its ‘Non Employment Income Data Matching project’, matching income data it collects from “customers” with tax return related data reported to the ATO. This project will assist the DHS to identify social welfare recipients who may not have disclosed income and assets to the...