Ownership of medical records – yours, mine or ours?
Upon the termination of a relationship between the practice and practitioner, who will retain the patient records? Where will they be stored? Is the practitioner permitted to access the records, or make a copy?
Goodwill hunting – contractor entitlement to goodwill
Goodwill is the essence of any business, and can often be a business’ most valuable (albeit intangible) asset. The value of goodwill lies in brand identity or recognition, customer networks, positive customer and employee relations, and broadly speaking, reputation.
Superannuation for contractors – come one, come all
Determining whether an individual is an employee or contractor can leave you scratching your head. There is unfortunately little clarification in the context of superannuation entitlements and determining whether payments to a contractor are covered by the superannuation guarantee (SGC) regime further blurs the line between contractor and employee.
Contractor vs Employee – Shifting Sands for Medical and Allied Health Practices
Medical, dental and allied health professional structures have and continue to be designed to engage professional staff that are labelled and treated as independent business operators known as “independent contractors”.
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.
Further reduced payroll tax for regional businesses
Since 1 July 2017, a lower Victoria payroll tax rate of 3.65% has applied to wages paid by regional employers. This rate was further reduced to 2.425% from 1 July 2018.
National Wage Increases Handed Down
Today the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission handed down its annual wage review decision.
Tax Disputes Part 1 – Early Engagement
This is the first in a six-part 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.
Can I terminate my contract?
The law has long recognised that a breach of certain types of obligations in a contract will entitle an innocent party to terminate that contract (and sue for damages).
Trustees – TFN reports and withholding under ATO scrutiny
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) recently announced that it will be looking at whether trustees are properly lodging tax file number (TFN) reports for TFN withholding for closely held trusts.
Further clarity on Payroll Tax for Contractors
As payroll tax provisions come under increased scrutiny by Revenue Offices, another case has provided clarity on how they should be interpreted.
Access To CGT Concessions To Be Tightened For Ownership Interests In Companies And Trusts From 1 July 2017
On 8 February 2018, the Government released for public consultation exposure draft legislation to implement the 2017 Budget announcement to improve the integrity of the small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions.
Succession planning is planning to succeed
In 2017, the Gforce Group (incorporating People@Work) commissioned a research project to understand trends within workplaces in Geelong, with information collected through interviews with human resources representatives from medium to large organisations.
What is “market value” for the purpose of the MNAV test
In Commissioner of Taxation v Miley, the Federal Court overturned a decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) concerning the method for valuing shares in applying the maximum net asset value (MNAV) test in s 152-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.
GST on the sale of residential property – a lesson from the Sebel Manly Beach Hotel
In the case of MSAUS v FC of T the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) recently held that Division 135 of the A New Tax System \Goods and Services Tax Act (GST Act) did not apply to impose an increasing adjustment (an amount of GST on an otherwise GST-free transaction) to the sale of leased residential apartments.
ACCC Alleges Ultra Tune Wrong Turn
The competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has initiated proceedings against Australia’s second largest car repair organisation in the country, Ultra Tune Australia Pty Ltd (Ultra Tune). The ACCC alleges that Ultra Tune has failed to comply with the Franchising Code of Conduct (Code) and the Australian Consumer Law (ACL)
Partner is denied access to partnership’s carried forward tax losses
In RGGW and Commissioner of Taxation [2017] AATA 238, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) held that tax losses were not available to a corporate partner in a property development partnership due to poor evidence to support its claim for losses.
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.
Proposed amendments to “aggregate schemes” under the debt-equity rules
On 10 October 2016, the Federal Government released an Exposure Draft to amend the debt and equity rules in Division 974 of Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 for the purpose of implementing recommendations made by the Board of Taxation in its April 2015 report Review of the Debt and Equity Tax Rules.