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.
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.
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.
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.
Regional growth - private company access to equity crowd funding
The long awaited extension of the Corporations Act Crowd-sourced Equity Funding (CSF) regime to private companies is now in place.
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.
Fairness and good business: a year of Unfair Terms
It’s been over a year since the Australian Consumer Law provided that terms that are ‘unfair’ in new or renewed consumer and small business contracts could be deemed void and unenforceable.
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
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.
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.
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.
Small businesses offered long awaited protection from unfair contract terms
From 12 November 2016, small businesses will receive important protection from unfair terms in standard form consumer contracts.
Has your private information been exposed in alleged census hack?
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has announced that it is launching an investigation into the Australian Bureau of Statistics for potential breaches of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
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.
A TIMELY REMINDER FROM THE FEDERAL COURT IN THE LEAD UP TO CHRISTMAS
In the lead up to the festive season, the Federal Court has confirmed that Chrisco’s lay-by agreement included an unfair contract term in breach of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
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.
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.
ONE STEP FORWARD AND ONE STEP BACK PROTECTION FOR SMALL BUSINESS AGAINST UNFAIR CONTRACT TERMS
Protection of small businesses against unfair contract terms moved one step closer yesterday following the support by the Senate of the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Small Business and Unfair Contract Terms) Bill 2015.
Repair, replacement or refund - who decides?
In 2013 six different Samsung products were recalled due to the discovery of an electrical fault that could lead to the products catching fire.
As a consequence of the recall, Samsung was obliged, under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), to replace the recalled products or provide a full refund.
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.