News & Reviews

BUDGET 2018

Date posted: Wednesday, May 9, 2018

PERSONAL TAXATION Personal tax rates: staged seven-year reform plan starting from 2018–2019 In the 2018–2019 Budget, the Government announced staged tax relief for low and middle income earners. The Government is proposing a major seven-year, three-step plan to reform personal income tax. Step 1 will see a new, non-refundable low and middle income tax offset from […]

Client Alert February/March 2018

Date posted: Thursday, March 15, 2018

Bill to implement housing affordability CGT changes As part of the 2017–2018 Budget, the Federal Government announced a range of reforms intended to reduce pressure on housing affordability. Legislation has now been introduced into Parliament that proposes to: remove the entitlement to the capital gains tax (CGT) main residence exemption for foreign residents; and modify […]

Client Alert December 2017

Date posted: Thursday, November 16, 2017

Consultation paper: combating phoenix activities The Federal Government has released a consultation paper proposing company and tax law reforms to combat phoenix activities. Phoenix activities involve stripping assets from a company that’s in debt and transferring them to another company to avoid paying the first company’s liabilities – that is, the new company “rises from […]

Client Alert October/November 2017

Date posted: Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Bill to increase Medicare levy The Medicare Levy Amendment (National Disability Insurance Scheme Funding) Bill 2017 has been introduced to implement the Government’s 2017–2018 Budget announcement to increase the Medicare levy by 0.5% to 2.5% from 1 July 2019 in order to help finance the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Nine other Bills have been introduced to […]

Client Alert August September 2017

Date posted: Friday, August 11, 2017

Tax cut for small business: ATO will amend returns For the 2016–2017 income year, the company tax rate for small businesses decreases to 27.5%. Companies with turnover of less than $10 million are eligible for this rate. The maximum franking credit that can be allocated to a frankable distribution has also been reduced to 27.5% […]

BUDGET 2017

Date posted: Wednesday, May 10, 2017

BUDGET 2017 PERSONAL TAXATION No change to personal tax rates; Budget deficit levy to end The 2017–2018 Federal Budget contained no changes to the personal income tax rates and thresholds. This means that the 2% budget deficit levy on incomes over $180,000 will not be extended beyond its initial three years, and will cease on […]

Client Alert February / March 2017

Date posted: Monday, February 20, 2017

Re-characterisation of income from trading businesses The ATO has released Taxpayer Alert TA 2017/1 to say it is reviewing arrangements that try to fragment integrated trading businesses to re-characterise trading income as more favourably taxed passive income. The ATO is concerned with cases where a single business is divided in a contrived way into separate […]

Client Alert December 2016/January 2017

Date posted: Friday, January 20, 2017

Contrived trust arrangements in ATO sights The ATO has cautioned taxpayers against arrangements that seek to minimise tax by creating artificial differences between the taxable net income and distributable income of closely held trusts. Deputy Commissioner Michael Cranston said the ATO is investigating arrangements where trustees are engineering a reduction in trust income to allow […]

Client Alert October / November 2016

Date posted: Monday, September 19, 2016

Personal middle income tax rate cut on the way The Federal Government has introduced a Bill which proposes to implement its 2016 Budget proposal to increase the third personal income tax threshold that applies to personal income taxpayers. The rate of tax payable on individuals’ taxable incomes from $80,001 to $87,000 would fall from 37% […]

Client Alert – August / September 2016

Date posted: Tuesday, July 19, 2016

ATO small business benchmarks updated The ATO has announced the latest benchmarks for small businesses. Based on the data from 2014 income tax returns and business activity statements, the benchmarks cover over 1.3 million small businesses. ATO Assistant Commissioner Matthew Bambrick said one of the great things about the benchmarks was that they gave a […]