Category: Uncategorized
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What is a Taxi?
Lets start with a definition… According to dictionary.com… contradiction kɒntrəˈdɪkʃ(ə)n noun a combination of statements, ideas, or features which are opposed to one another. When considering the exemption from FBT for certain taxi travel under section 58Z of the FBTAA86, the Commissioner states: The exemption is limited to travel in a vehicle licensed by the…
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Who gets the 27.5% Company tax rate?
You would think this is an easy question to ask… But it is not. The rules seem pretty easy. They are: A corporate tax entity carries on a business in the income year; The aggregated turnover of the corporate tax entity for the income year is less than: for the 2016-17 income year — $10…
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Einstien on Income Tax
Albert Einstien used a tax agent called Leo Mattersdorf. He told the following story a few years after Einstein’s death in 1955… One year while I was at his Princeton home preparing his return, Mrs Einstein, who was then still living, asked me to stay for lunch. During the course of the meal, the professor…
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Tax Depreciation Bill in Parliament
The Bill to limit tax depreciation for residential buildings has started its process through the Parliament. I have discussed these changes before, firstly when they were announced on Budget night, and second when draft legislation was released for consultation. But now we have the Bill in Parliament and in the next few weeks the Parliament will…
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What Dual Citizenship Issues Can Mean For Tax
It is not hard to imagine that one of the many members of the House of Reps will find they have fallen foul oft section 44 of the Constitution, the section that stops dual citizens from sitting in the House. This will lead to a by-election and could potentially could lead to a change in…
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Public finances and tax reform
Everyone (well almost everyone) accepts the Australia has a public finance problem. Even those who have previously argued that our public debt levels are acceptable have begun to argue for changes to fix up our public finances. And recently the loudest voices for public finance reform have been on the revenue side, not the expenditure…
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Discretionary Trusts and Bill Shorten
Today Bill Shorten will announce… … a minimum 30% tax on trust distributions to those over 18 years old The only exemption we will get in the speech is that… …it does not apply to charitable, testamentary, deceased or farming trusts So it looks like there will be a new tax, lets call it the…
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More super changes
On budget night this year the government announce two new changes to super, both relating to housing. And we now have draft legislation for both. The first is called the First Home Super Saver Scheme (or FHSSS – now that will be easy to remember). The FHSSS will apply to voluntary superannuation contributions of up to…
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Foreign residents lose the main residence exemption
As part of the May Budget, the Government announced reforms to the operation of the CGT rules for foreign residents. One of these reforms is to remove the entitlement to the CGT main residence exemption for foreign residents that have dwellings that qualify as their main residence. We now have draft legislation implementing this change and…
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Unpaid Present Entitlements to a Corporate Beneficiary… Not Again
The Commissioner has released a Practical Compliance Guideline to help those who used PS LA 2010/4 to sort out their UPEs to corporate beneficiaries 7 years ago. PSLA 2010/4 states that the Commissioner will not treat the UPE to the corporate beneficiary as a Div 7A deemed dividend if, under a written agreement, the trust pays…
