News

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...

The Treasurer has ordered the sale of a further 16 Australian residential properties that have been held by foreign nationals in breach of the foreign investment framework. “The 16 properties were purchased in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, with prices ranging from approximately $200,000 to $2 million. “The individuals involved come from...

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and the ATO have entered into an agreement on the automatic exchange of financial account information (based on the ‘Common Reporting Standard’). This automatic exchange of financial information will commence by September 2018.

With over eight million Australians claiming work-related expenses each year, the ATO is reminding people to make sure they get their deductions right this tax time. Assistant Commissioner Graham Whyte said that, in 2014/15, the ATO conducted around 450,000 reviews and audits of individual taxpayers, leading to revenue adjustments of over $1.1 billion in income...

The ATO’s stance against phoenix activity has continued with multiple search warrants issued, and many business and residential sites accessed without notice across Victoria and Queensland, as part of a criminal investigation into unpaid superannuation, employee withholding, GST, and income tax. ‘Phoenix activity’ refers to a business that shuts down whilst still owing creditors, employees...