Best practice procurement - getting specifications right

At any stage of the procurement lifecycle – from tender writing to final negotiations – accurately and completely describing what you are buying is critical…and rarely straightforward.  Here are some of our thoughts on getting this right.

Read More

Best practice procurement: Managing probity risks

A “lack of probity” is often raised in a procurement context as part of a complaint that there is an element of perceived unfairness.  It is an easy allegation to make, and one that is often made easier when organisations do not take the time to understand probity and embed it into their procurement practices. 

Read More

2019 State Budget: Economic entitlement provisions expanded

Landholder duty is a state tax that was introduced to impose duty on acquisitions in landholding entities. 

The ‘economic entitlement’ provisions of the landholder regime are an integrity measure unique to Victoria. Previously, they applied duty to transactions which provide the acquirer with an economic entitlement that amounts to an interest of 50% or more in a private landholder. This specifically impacts arrangements where developers or builders agree with a landholder to receive 50% or more of the profits or income of a landholder’s land without actually acquiring an interest in the landholding entity.

Read More

Tax Disputes Part 2 - Voluntary Disclosures

This is the second in a series of articles on strategies that can be employed in a tax dispute with the ATO.

Tax disputes can be costly, time consuming, and stressful, even if the taxpayer is ultimately successful.  When approached by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), we will always advise clients to engage with the ATO to either resolve or narrow the issues in dispute as quickly as possible. 

Read More

Be careful with credit card surcharges

This week Cruisin Motorhomes paid a $12,600 penalty following an infringement notice from the ACCC alleging a breach of the excessive payment surcharge laws as outlined in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. The ban on excessive surcharge payments has been in place since September 2017.

Read More
Commercial Contracts Alasdair Woodford Commercial Contracts Alasdair Woodford

Change To PPS Lease Definition May Save Time And Money For Small Businesses

On 19 May 2017, legislation amending the meaning of PPS Lease under the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Act) received royal assent and is now law. The new law, means that indefinite leases and leases of less than two years, are no longer required to be registered on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR).

The PPSR

Read More
Business Structuring, Commercial Contracts Vittoria De Stefano Business Structuring, Commercial Contracts Vittoria De Stefano

Cessation of statutory protections for migrated security interests on the PPSR

Under the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act), securities and charges under other legislation and registers were migrated onto the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). Many migrated securities were not registered in accordance with the Act’s registration requirements.

Read More

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) small business concessions barred - income from incidental activity of associated entity counted toward determining aggregated annual turnover

The Full Federal Court of Australia denied the application of the CGT small business 50% active asset reduction on the basis that an unusual activity carried on by an associated entity to the taxpayer contributed to the aggregated annual turnover of the taxpayer and associated entity to be more than $2,000,000.

Read More
Consumer Law, Commercial Contracts Vittoria De Stefano Consumer Law, Commercial Contracts Vittoria De Stefano

A timely reminder when drafting contracts containing ‘automatic renewal terms’

As set out in our update “Small Business Offered Long Awaited Protection from Unfair Contract Terms”, unfair contract term provisions under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) have been extended to not only protect consumers from unfair terms, but also parties to a small business contract.

Read More
Privacy, Technology, Commercial Contracts Vittoria De Stefano Privacy, Technology, Commercial Contracts Vittoria De Stefano

DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED A PRIVACY POLICY IN PLACE?

To help you determine if your business legally requires a privacy policy under the Privacy Act, we have developed a simple flow chart for you to follow. If the answer is yes to any of the questions in the chart, a privacy policy should be prepared to ensure your business is not subject to penalties for non-compliance with the Privacy Act.

Read More
Banking and Finance, Commercial Contracts Harwood Andrews Banking and Finance, Commercial Contracts Harwood Andrews

90 day “PPS Lease” Abolished

From today, 1 October 2015, the Personal Property Securities Act will no longer operate to automatically give rise to a security interest in serialised goods (e.g. motor vehicles, motorhomes, aircrafts etc.) that are leased or bailed for a term of less than 12 months.

This is in contrast to the now outdated law which provided that leases or bailments of serialised goods for a period of more than 90 days, automatically created a security interest in the goods in favour of the lessor or the bailor. This meant that a lessor or bailor had to register a security interest on the Personal Property Securities Register (Register) to protect their interest in the goods. 

Read More
Commercial Contracts Harwood Andrews Commercial Contracts Harwood Andrews

Do your commercial documents work?

It is an integral part of doing business to have the following documents in place:

Terms of trade
Credit Application
Guarantee and Indemnity

These documents generally provide a level of security for a business when providing goods or services on credit terms. This security is usually provided through the Personal Property Securities regime and/or by requiring a Guarantee and Indemnity from the directors of the customer.

Read More

Small business update: Good news for small business

There have been a number of legal developments in the small business sector which should be welcomed as wins for small business operators.  This alert provides a summary of three of those developments that are particularly relevant following the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s release of its Small Business in Focus report for the six months to June 2015.

Read More