Melbourne businesswoman Belle Gibson, developer of the popular iPhone/iPad app ‘The Whole Pantry’, is facing investigation by Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) following allegations that her company has been undertaking illegal fundraising activities.

The ATO have announced the caps on the amount you can contribute to your superannuation for the 2015/16 financial year. 

The ACNC have announced that up to 1,400 ACNC registered charities face deregistration unless they lodge their Annual Information Statement (AIS) by 30 March 2015. Each of these charities has failed to lodge their AIS for 2 consecutive years.  If deregistered, they will no longer be eligible for charity tax concessions including income tax, fringe benefit tax and GST.

In the recent Federal Court case of Krok v Commissioner of Taxation[1] a taxpayer was implied to have waived the right to legal professional privilege by disclosing documents which refer to the purpose and reasoning of legal advice. As a result, the taxpayer may be required to discover documents that would otherwise have been protected.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC) has announced its decision to deregister the former AFL affiliated charity Balls4Life. Established in 2010, the charity raised money to fund prostate cancer research by selling signed match-day footballs and auctioning them on the Balls4Life website.

You may think your succession planning is complete if you have prepared a will, successive appointors to your trusts and appointed a Power of Attorney. But it’s not!

Do you ever provide advice to company directors, and they act on that advice? Do you ever give instructions to company directors and they act on those instructions?

People have a general awareness of the implications of personal liability as a director. For example, directors can find themselves personally liable for debts to employees, tax debts and penalties owed to the Australian Tax Office or for breaches of The Corporations Act 2001 (“the Act”).

Each New Year people make personal resolutions that more often than not are left unfulfilled and forgotten by the end of January. So perhaps this year rather than focusing on yourself, take the time to reflect on your family business and the goals which you would like to achieve.

A total of $8.3 million in penalties was imposed by the Federal Court upon two forklift gas supply companies, Renegade Gas Pty Ltd (Renegade), Speed-E-Gas (NSW) Pty Ltd (Speed-E-Gas) and three individuals of the two companies, for engaging in cartel conduct restricting competition.

Parents frequently provide their children with financial assistance to purchase a home or an investment property. Financial assistance provided by a parent to a child will be considered a loan or a gift for family law purposes.

The new penalty regime for self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) may allow a relatively lenient approach where cases involve a number of serious breaches of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act) , if the two recent Federal Court decisions of DCT v Lyons and DCT v Graham Family Superannuation Pty Ltd are any guide to how the regime will be applied by the Courts.

In a recent case, the Plaintiff Donna Nolan separated from her husband and brought proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland separate to her proceedings in the Family Court.

Family Meetings

Many successful families in business hold at least one family meeting each year. Family meetings often have a formal business and social component, and a structured and unstructured component, and are frequently held in locations away from the normal environments of the family.

Harwood Andrews is a reporting member of the Australian Legal Sector Alliance (AusLSA), an industry-led association that works to promote sustainable practices across the legal sector.

The Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No 6) Bill 2014 (the Bill) has now been passed by both Houses of Parliament and is expected to receive assent shortly.

Family Business Hub has been established by Harwood Andrews as a specialist consulting service to provide advice, support and expert knowledge to families in business.

Voluntary disclosures relating to the Australian Tax Office’s (ATO) “Project DO IT” initiative must be made before 19 December 2014. 

A recent case in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (Pope v FC, known as Pope’s Case) is of interest to taxpayers and their advisers, with respect to the characterisation of unpaid trust entitlements (UPEs) as loans. 

On 30 July 2014 the Australian Taxation Office issued Taxation Ruling TR 2014/5 (previously released in draft form as TR 2013/D6) addressing the taxation effect of an order by the Family Court under section 79 of the Family Law Act 1975 for a private company to pay money or transfer property to a shareholder or their associate.

In line with its election promise to abolish the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), the Abbott Government has now released Options Paper, Australia’s Charities and Not-for-profits which seeks feedback on its proposed arrangements for charities in Australia. The Government’s proposed arrangements attempt to balance the administrative burden of reporting with the need for organisations receiving concessional tax treatment to be publicly accountable.