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55 Market Street Sydney 2000
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FEBRUARY 2010
Non-commercial loans and corporate beneficiaries
When a private company pays amounts to shareholders, or lends them amounts or forgives debts owed by them, those amounts can be treated as dividends paid by the company on which those shareholders are subject to tax. These provisions, which also relate to associates of shareholders, can often be overcome by putting arrangements on a footing which the Commissioner deems to be commercial. click here for more details.
Declare offshore income or wear the consequences
The tax commissioner has announced that the net is closing in on tax havens and has made a new offer for people who may not have declared all income from offshore activities. click here for more details.
Defamation payout not assessable
In the Sydney Refractive Surgery Centre case, the Full Federal Court has held that damages awarded to a company which were calculated on a 'lost profits basis' were not assessable. click here for more details.
Five new Tax Alerts
The ATO has issued a number of tax alerts on arrangements that have come to its attention and over which it has concerns. These arrangements are often marketed aggressively and we recommend that clients of ESV either avoid the arrangements or seek advice from us prior to investing any money. click here for more details.
ATO appeals case – education expenses/Youth Allowance
The Tax Office has now advised that it has sought special leave to appeal against this decision (the Anstis case) in the High Court. In that case, the Full Federal Court held that a taxpayer, who received a Youth Allowance as a university student, was entitled to a tax deduction for her education expenses.
We understand that the Tax Office intends to ignore the decision of the Federal Court and continue to apply its view that education expenses are not deductible for tax purposes when incurred in deriving income from Commonwealth educational assistance schemes.
Goods taken from stock for private use
The Tax Office has issued a new tax determination which estimates of the value of goods taken from trading stock for private use by taxpayers in certain industries for the 2009/10 income year. click here for more details.
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
The information in this newsletter is quite general in nature and anyone intending to apply it practically to their own circumstances should seek professional advice to verify it’s individual applicability.
If you have any queries regarding the information contained in this
update please do not hesitate to contact us.
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