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 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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

The Coalition’s ‘miracle’ win may not have been foreseen by the polls or the pundits, however either way the votes fell, the tax and superannuation landscape was up for change.

Foreign companies that may be controlled by an Australian entity should review their decision-making based on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Taxation Ruling, TR 2018/5 (TR 2018/5).  It is timely for Australian groups with foreign-incorporated subsidiaries to consider whether they are appropriately managing tax residency risk by re-visiting and/or implementing tax residency protocols and ensuring that they can be applied practically.

This week the government released the Board of Taxation report on a new tax residency model for individuals with a position that further analysis and consideration on the key recommendations is required before the Government takes a position. 

As 30 June rapidly approaches, taxpayers and their advisors face not knowing whether a 30% or 27.5% tax rate applies to certain companies for the 2018 income year.

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.

Uncertainty had arisen earlier this year as to whether companies with passive investments (including ‘bucket’ companies) would be eligible for the lower company tax rate of 27.5% based on the requirement in section 23AA of the Income Tax Rates Act 1986 that they were “carrying on a business.”

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

Any sports club, large or small, faces the prospect of a troublesome member, or members, threatening the reputation and standing of the club in the community, or interfering with other members’ quite enjoyment.

With the new super laws due to commence on 1 July 2017, now is the time to consider whether your SMSF trust deed or pension document needs to be updated.

Monday afternoon’s (AEST) Super Bowl LI has already been described as the “greatest of all time” by many experts, with the New England Patriots pulling off an extraordinary come from behind performance to defeat the Atlanta Falcons, 34-28.

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.