News & Tax Insights

With the election of the Liberal/National Party Coalition to form a new Government, we can look forward to a number of significant changes to our taxation laws. Firstly, we have the big ticket items of getting rid of the Mining Tax and the Carbon Tax and cancelling the proposed abolition of the Statutory Method for determining Fringe Benefits Tax on motor vehicles.  This latter measure which was brought in without consultation was on the way to destroying salary packaging advisory businesses and creating considerable harm to the motor vehicle industry. To make some savings to help pay for all of…

This is a perennial question. If you are a share investor, your shares are held on capital account and, provided you meet the CGT conditions (eg holding an asset for more than twelve months), you are subject to tax on only 50% of the gains. However, if you are a share trader, you can claim up-front deductions for any paper losses you might incur because your shares are treated as trading stock and you can value the shares you hold at the end of a financial year at either their cost or market value. So, if you want to get…

Despite giving lip service to “red tape reduction” and setting up committees for that purpose, it seems that Governments and their associated bureaucracies cannot help themselves. Here are some extra complexities placed on Super Fund trustees just in the past several months: Abolition of excess concessional contributions tax. This is not an abolition, it will be paid by the taxpayer instead of the Super Fund and an interest charge will be added. However, you can arrange for a release of excess concessional contributions which would otherwise automatically trigger the bring forward provisions for non-concessional contributions. Division 293 Tax. This new…