Pioneering thought — Sladen Legal

Rob Jeremiah

Tax disputes - what to do

Tax disputes - what to do

As the old saying goes there are two certainties in life; death and taxes. Every man, woman, child and business entity in this country, whether they realise it or not, will have their day-to-day lives impacted by Australian taxation laws whether in their work, what they buy, their assets or investments, how their business operates or the cost of goods and services.

As it is the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) that administers and enforces Australian taxation laws it pays to know what to do should you ever wish to dispute a decision by the ATO. Fundamentally, if you do not agree with a decision made by the ATO in relation to your taxation liability or position you are in dispute. The real question is what are you do about any such dispute.

Sladen Snippet – 2015 Intergenerational Report and Australian migration

Sladen Snippet – 2015 Intergenerational Report and Australian migration

Underpinning any discussion of the shape and demographics of Australia into the future must consider migration.

Recently, the Commonwealth government released the ‘2015 Intergenerational Report’ which assesses the long-term sustainability of current Government policies and how changes to Australia’s population size and age profile may impact on economic growth, workforce and public finances over the next 40 years. 

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Sladen Snippet - A warning to exercise caution in disclosing the ‘gist’ of advice: implied waiver of legal professional privilege

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Sladen Snippet - A warning to exercise caution in disclosing the ‘gist’ of advice: implied waiver of legal professional privilege

The recent Federal Court case of Krok v Commissioner of Taxation has provided a reminder that a taxpayer may impliedly waive their right to legal professional privilege by disclosing documents which refer to the purpose and reasoning of legal advice. As a result of the implied waiver, the taxpayer may be required to discover documents that would otherwise have been protected by legal professional privilege.

Updated SMSF deed and our new SMSF corporate trustee stakeholders agreement

Updated SMSF deed and our new SMSF corporate trustee stakeholders agreement

Sladen Legal has conducted a major review of our self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) documents including the SMSF deed, the SMSF deed update and the SMSF pension agreements. We are pleased to announce our new SMSF corporate trustee stakeholders agreement.

Read The Trust Deed: Pope’s Case - Unpaid Present Entitlement and Bad Debt Deductions

Read The Trust Deed: Pope’s Case - Unpaid Present Entitlement and Bad Debt Deductions

A recent case in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (Pope v FC, known as Pope’s Case) is of interest to taxpayers and their advisers, with respect to the characterisation of unpaid trust entitlements (UPEs) as loans.

In this case, Deputy President Hack characterised amounts previously distributed to the taxpayer, Pope, from the Pope Family Trust, and remaining unpaid as being debt at the time, that the amounts were written off by the Pope as being bad. Pope had previously included the UPEs in his assessable income in the income years in which the distributions were made and sought to obtain a deduction for those UPEs when they were irrecoverable from the Trust.

Project DO IT Alert

Project DO IT Alert

A reminder that voluntary disclosures pursuant to the Australian Tax Office’s (ATO) “Project DO IT” initiative must be made before 19 December 2014. Having regard to the difficulties often encountered and the general time frames required to obtain necessary information sourced from offshore third parties, the time to prepare for, and draft, voluntary disclosures taxpayers considering making a voluntary disclosure pursuant to the Project DO IT program would be well advised to consider their eligibility for the Project DO IT initiative and begin their disclosure preparation as soon as practicably possible.

Division 7A - Commissioner’s Discretion, ADR and ATO Internal Facilitation

Division 7A - Commissioner’s Discretion, ADR and ATO Internal Facilitation

This paper was presented by Rob Jeremiah at the 2nd Annual Trusts and Companies Taxation Symposium Television Education Network, held on 7 August, 2014.

The paper focuses on dealing with situations where non-compliance with of Division 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 has been discovered, and understanding the operation of the Commissioner of Taxation’s discretion to disregard Division 7A. The paper considers the interplay of making a voluntary disclosure and requests to apply the Commissioner’s discretion and the application of the Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Australian Tax Office’s Internal Facilitation process.

Balancing Super and Family Trust Issues in Blended Families

Balancing Super and Family Trust Issues in Blended Families

This paper was presented by Amanda Morton and Rob Jeremiah at the Eighth Annual Estate Planning Conference Television Education Network, held on 20 March, 2014.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a number of tools which may be used to implement an estate plan and to achieve the client’s objectives.

Given (unfortunately) that disputes are more likely to arise between family members upon the death of a client in a blended family situation, it is most important that proper consideration be given to the client’s estate plan and how to achieve their objectives.