A recent decision handed down by the Full Federal Court in Advanced Holdings Pty Limited as Trustee for the Demian Trust v FCT [2021] FCAFC 135 emphasises the important principles of trust deed interpretation and the limitations of statutory provisions concerning the evidentiary force of company records. The decision also serves as a valuable reminder for directors of small companies and corporate trustees to maintain good records.

Harwood Andrews is pleased to announce that as of 1 July 2021, preeminent tax lawyer
Rob Warnock will join the Business Law Team in Geelong.

The Victorian State Government last week released its 2021-2022 Budget. Although aimed at a broad cross-section of the State, the Budget’s revenue raising measures primarily targeted landowners, property developers and gender exclusive clubs.

COVID-19 has taught us to expect the unexpected. Australians are generally positive people with a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude to all aspects of life including in business. However, COVID-19 has caused many people to question that attitude and as a result many are now understanding the importance of planning for the worst-case scenario.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released guidelines which set out the ATO’s proposed compliance approach to the allocation of profits by professional firms. The Draft Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2021/D2 Allocation of professional firm profits – ATO compliance approach (Draft PCG) make substantial changes to the former guidance that the ATO suspended in late 2017.

The decision made by the NSW Court of Appeal in Chief Commissioner of State Revenue v Downer EDI Engineering Pty Ltd [2020] NSWCA 126 was an unsatisfactory outcome for the NSW chief Commissioner of State Revenue’s (Commissioner).

With bitcoin prices skyrocketing, investors becoming aware of the instability of fiat currencies (AUD, GBP, USD etc), and low interest rates stemming from the economic downturn of COVID-19, the world of cryptocurrency is once again filling up social media feeds.

For some time, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been issuing notices for a compliance program focussed on the “Next 5000” private groups in Australia (Next 5000 Tax Performance Program).

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has issued Taxation Determination TD 2021/2 that contains the ATO view that companies that carry on a business in a general sense but whose only activity is renting out an investment property will be unable to benefit from the small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions in relation to that property.