News

Significant changes to the employee share schemes (ESS) rules were announced in October 2014. Additional changes announced in the Budget will: • exclude eligible venture capital investments from the aggregated turnover test and grouping rules (for the start-up concession); • provide the CGT discount to employee share scheme interests that are subject to the start-up...

The Government has announced that it will impose GST on offshore intangible supplies to Australian consumers with effect from 1 July 2017. The measure has been cited in the media as the “Netflix” tax. The Government released draft legislation which contains the details of the changes. The key concept in determining if a supply is...

The Government announced it will establish a new and simpler mainstream Child Care Subsidy from 1 July 2017. Key points include the following: • Abolition of the current Child Care Benefit, Child Care Rebate and Jobs, Education and Training Child Care Fee Assistance programmes. • A single means tested Child Care Subsidy for all families,...

The Treasurer said the Government will stop people from claiming parental leave payments from both the Government and their employers – he said this was effectively double dipping. This would apply from 1 July 2016.

The Government confirmed that the Age Pension assets test threshold for a single homeowner will be increased to $250,000 (up from $202,000) and $375,000 for a homeowner couple (up from $286,500) from January 2017. The assets test threshold (or assets free area) for non-homeowners will be increased to $450,000 (single) and $575,000 (couple). The assets...

The Government confirmed that a 10% cap will apply to the “deductible amount” for pension income received from a defined benefit superannuation scheme for the purposes of the social security income test. Recipients of Veterans’ Affairs pensions and defined benefit income streams paid by military superannuation funds are exempt from this measure. In addition, the...

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The ATO has reminded taxpayers that the net medical expenses tax offset (NMETO) is being phased out. To be eligible for the NMETO for 2014/15, a taxpayer must have received an amount of the tax offset in both of their 2012/13 and 2013/14 income tax assessments. If a taxpayer’s 2012/13 notice of assessment shows an...

The ATO has set up a new page on its website called “Building confidence”, which talks about its current compliance activities, and the amounts of tax and penalties it has collected in 2014 from its various initiatives. Some of the areas that the ATO has stated it will be focusing on are:  Work-related expenses:...

The ATO has issued a guide for trustees of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) that asks: “Has someone asked you to invest your SMSF funds into a trust, company or investment product, and then offered to lend some or all of that money back to you, your company or any entity you control?” If the answer...