The tax obligations on a practice in relation to an employment relationship are often perceived as being significantly more costly (and restrictive) compared to simply engaging a practitioner as an independent contractor. However tread carefully when making this decision, as getting your characterisation of a worker wrong can be even more costly and you may find yourself on the wrong side of the law.

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”.

Although digital manipulation of images and video has been around for some time, the combination of software that improves the realism of the fake and the speed at which fakes can be generated and disseminated to targeted audiences has made headlines in the political sphere over the last year or so.  The manipulation of video images using artificial intelligence has been called ‘deepfake’, a portmanteau of ‘deep learning’ and ‘fake’.

Most new software for organisations these days is a ‘cloud service’.  While previously you bought a CD ROM that you popped in your computer and ran the program on that local computer, cloud software means that the program is running on a server somewhere else in the world and delivered to you via the Internet. 

Last week, the Australia Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission introduced External Conduct Standards (ECS), with which all charities that operate overseas (including Basic Religious Charities) must comply.

If you provide services to consumers and provide some form of warranty against defects you must adhere to some updated mandatory requirements of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

Under the Local Government Act 1989, Victorian local Councils must use their resources efficiently and effectively and provide services in accordance with best-value principles to meet the needs of the local community, and improve the quality of life in the local community.

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.

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. 

At the end of last year, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) issued civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Harold Mitchell and Stephen Healy, two former directors of Tennis Australia Limited.

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 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). 

The looming federal election provides those of you managing or involved in a charity with a useful opportunity to consider the types of activities that can be undertaken without engaging in a “disqualifying purpose” under the Charities Act 2013 (Cth) (Act).

The parliamentary committee charged with assessing the franchising industry released its scathing report on 14 March 2019 (report), which identified a “systematic exploitation of some franchisees by a subset of franchisors”.