We know it’s basic but make sure you get three quotes for all purchases. At the very least it will keep your supplier on their toes and will provide further...

Directors of a trading company are subject to personal risk from statutory penalties from mining, occupational health and safety, environmental, PAYG withholding and superannuation guarantee legislation. Rather than holding the company shares personally...

Take out a life insurance policy on your partner’s life so that you have funds available to acquire his/her interest in the business if they pass away. The proceeds of a life insurance policy are ...

The Tribunal has knocked out a claim for deductions over five years for franchise “establishment fees” made by a branch of the Bendigo Bank. This puts doubt on similar payments for other franchise groups ...

An interpretive decision on trust distributions received by an insurance company has worrying implications for trust beneficiaries because it states that the beneficiaries’ income from the trust distributions may include amounts that were nontaxable in the trust ...

Payments by an employer to an employee who was a victim of floods may be an FBT exempt benefit (and not salary and wages). Conditions are ...

A 50% discount is available on assets held by individuals and by discretionary family trusts if the asset has been held for at least 12 months. If you intend to sell ...

In two separate cases, the Tribunal has denied access to CGT concessions where valuable assets were sold and the taxpayers relied on poor valuations. In <em>Syattadel Holdings</em> a marina purchased in 1996 for $1.675 million was sold in 2006 for $8.9 million. The $8.9 million price must have been subject to really good negotiation on the part of the vendors as the taxpayer’s valuation placed a market value of ...

An interpretive decision has been released concerning spouses of overseas employees who are registered under the formal Home School Education Program to tutor the children and keep records of the teaching/learning programs, time allocated, assessments of achievement and ...

These are assets (other than collectables) kept primarily for your personal use and enjoyment. If acquired for $10,000 (excluding GST) or less ...

Two long and complex draft tax rulings have been released setting out the taxation and GST treatment for farm-out arrangements in the resources industry. They change the previous Tax Office position on the taxation outcomes of certain aspects. State governments issue exploration permits and mining licences subject to conditions and work programmes. Farm-out arrangements are a common way for ...

Question: We have been running and accrual-based accounting process but feel that, given the size of our entity, this is somewhat onerous administratively. We acknowledge that we must continue accruals for leave, depreciation and other related items, but are enquiring if we can revert to a more cash-based process for standard income and expenditure items ...

Question: In prior years my client, a medical doctor, received salary income and claimed work related self education and other deductions. During last year she had no salary income but received a scholarship to undertake research and a Ph.D. degree. I understand scholarship income is exempt. Can she still claim work related self-education and other expenses?

At the time of writing, there is continuing concern about the Eurozone debacle and the effect this may have on the banking system internationally. Will there be a global recession or worse? Will this bring China’s current insatiable appetite for our raw materials to a halt?

A full exemption from CGT applies to the disposal of a small business asset held continuously for 15 years. You must be at least 55 years and intend to retire or else be incapacitated; you must pass the $6m net asset test or the $2m aggregated ...

The Full Bench of the High Court has overturned hard-ball tactics on costs by the Tax Office in a case known as Bruton Holdings. There are provisions in the Corporations Act that allow a corporate trustee to be reimbursed for its expenses from ...

The Government plans to increase regulation of self-managed super funds detailed in its Stronger Super announcement in September. It has announced support for a long list of changes including giving the Tax Office power to issue administrative penalties payable from the ...