Read the latest Blogs below or use the search function on the right hand side to find a specific blog.
Tax Planning For Business End Of Year
End Of Year Tax Planning To Consider For Businesses
Trust Distributions Before 30 June
Trustee resolutions must be made by 30 June
When making trust resolutions trustees need to consider:
SMSF Off Market Transfer - Government Backflip
Late last year the government moved on a suggestion from the Cooper Review on the tax system. The recommendation would mean that you could no longer transfer your personally owned shares into your Self Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF).
Capital Gains Main Residence After Death
Capital Gains Tax Exemption Main Residence After Owners Death
What changed on 1 July 2013?
Here's a brief summary of what changed on 1 July:
Capital Gains Tax & Your Home
In most cases assets acquired before 20th September 1985 are exempt from capital gains tax.
Superannuation & Borrowing To Purchase Property
On the fringe: top FBT myths & opportunities
Fringe benefits tax (FBT) exists to ensure that employees are not getting income disguised in another form and avoiding income tax. But such a broad concept has its problems. With the FBT year ending on 31 March, it's a good time to explore the myths and realities of fringe benefits and why so many employers get it wrong.
ATO Data Matching Programs
The ATO has announced that it will request and collect information for the purposes of the following data matching programs.
Banking Transparency Strategy Data Matching Program
The ATO will collect the offshore account details of approximately 50,000 bank customers to identify Australian resident taxpayers with offshore bank accounts, which may evidence undeclared income and/or gains in the 2008/09 to 2010/11 financial years, from the major banks (i.e., the 'Big Four'), as well as 14 other banks, including the Bank of Queensland, Macquarie Bank, Citigroup, HSBC, Rabobank, Arab Bank Australia, Bank of China, Credit Suisse and the Union Bank of Switzerland.
Termination of employment: Legal Costs
The ATO has released a tax ruling which considers whether employees who are terminated, who then successfully sue their (former) employer for wrongful dismissal and receive a reimbursement for their legal costs, need to include that amount in their assessable income.
Basically, an amount received in relation to a dispute concerning termination of employment is not an 'eligible termination payment' (ETP), nor forms part of an ETP, where that amount is capable of being identified as relating specifically to the reimbursement of legal costs.
However, if the amount of a settlement or court award received is a lump sum and the component relating to legal costs has not been and cannot be determined, then the whole amount is treated as being received in consequence of termination of employment (and, therefore, an ETP).
The only other way for the legal costs to be included in assessable income is where the former employee is able to claim a deduction for the legal costs (e.g., where they are suing for lost income, rather than just for wrongful dismissal), in which case the settlement or award for legal costs will be included in their assessable income as an 'assessable recoupment' (i.e., it basically offsets the deductions they could otherwise claim).
In addition, the ruling concludes that the reimbursement of a former employee's legal costs by their former employer should not be a 'fringe benefit' and no fringe benefits tax should apply.
