Legal news
The recent Supreme Court of Victoria decision of Lotus Oaks Pty Ltd as trustee for the Bozzo Family Trust v Commissioner of State Revenue [2021] VSC 388 is significant as it provides further clarification on the application of the primary production land tax exemption for land located in greater Melbourne in an urban zone. This is part one in a series of three articles on this decision.
Part 2 of our series decision of Lotus Oaks Pty Ltd as trustee for the Bozzo Family Trust v Commissioner of State Revenue [2021] VSC 388 looks at the former requirement in section 67 of the Land Tax Act 2005 (Vic) (Act) which required the principal business of the Bozzo FT to be of the type carried on on the subject land.
This final part of our 3 part series on the Lotus Oaks Pty Ltd as trustee for the Bozzo Family Trust v Commissioner of State Revenue [2021] VSC 388 decision looks at the substantially full-time engagement requirement in section 67 of the Act.
On 1 March 2021, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) released Draft Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2021/D2 Allocation of professional firm profits – ATO compliance approach (Draft PCG) that sets out the ATO’s proposed compliance approach to the allocation of profits by professional firms.
The AAT has rejected the Federal Commissioner of Taxation’s (Commissioner) view that a discretionary payment received by an employee upon his termination should be taxed as ordinary income. Despite the payment being made upon the termination of the employee the Commissioner argued that it was received in respect of their employment as it was calculated in relation to fees earnt.
The Full Federal Court in FCT v Healius [2020] FCAFC 173 has upheld the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) appeal of the Federal Court decision in Healius v COT [2019] FCA 2011 which considered whether lump sum payments made by a medical centre to its doctors were assessable on revenue or capital account.
Over the last 18 months several decisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Federal and Full Federal Courts considered the application of Australian tax residency laws including Harding v FCT [2019] FCAFC 29, FCT v Addy [2020] FCAFC 135, Stockton v FCT [2019] FCA 1679, Handsley v FCT [2019] AATA 917 and Coelho v FCT [2020] AATA 2474.
An employment agency contract involves a contract between two parties where one of the parties (the employment agent) procures the services of a person for a client. The relevant test is whether the employment agent provided individuals who would comprise, or who would be added to, the workforce of the client for the conduct of the client's business.
In our earlier articles we discussed the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and Federal Court decisions in Eichmann v FCT [2019] AATA 162 and FCT v Eichmann [2019] FCA 2155. The Full Federal Court in Eichmann v FCT [2020] FCAFC 155 recently allowed the taxpayer’s appeal of the Federal Court decision.
As we discussed in Coelho v FCT [2020] AATA 2474, different tax rates apply to residents and non-residents. Further, under Pt III of Sch 7 to the Income Tax Rates Act 1986, a working holiday maker pays tax at 15% on the first $37,000 of income in Australia. Commonly referred to as the ‘backpacker tax’.
We wrote here on the decision of Thawley J of the Federal Court in Peter Greensill Family Co Pty Ltd (trustee) v FCT (Greensill) where the Commissioner of Taxation was successful in arguing that section 855-10 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) does not disregard a capital gain distributed to a foreign resident beneficiary of an Australian discretionary trust. The taxpayer has appealed that decision to the Full Federal Court.
In the recent decision of Gulliman Pty Ltd v Commissioner of State Revenue [2020] VCAT 804, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal) held that the discharge of debt owed by vendor to purchaser in respect of previous transaction amounts to non-monetary consideration and, therefore, was subject to land transfer (stamp) duty.
