At the time of writing, there is continuing concern about the Eurozone debacle and the effect this may have on the banking system internationally. Will there be a global recession or worse? Will this bring China’s current insatiable appetite for our raw materials to a halt?

A full exemption from CGT applies to the disposal of a small business asset held continuously for 15 years. You must be at least 55 years and intend to retire or else be incapacitated; you must pass the $6m net asset test or the $2m aggregated ...

The Full Bench of the High Court has overturned hard-ball tactics on costs by the Tax Office in a case known as Bruton Holdings. There are provisions in the Corporations Act that allow a corporate trustee to be reimbursed for its expenses from ...

The Government plans to increase regulation of self-managed super funds detailed in its Stronger Super announcement in September. It has announced support for a long list of changes including giving the Tax Office power to issue administrative penalties payable from the ...

The Housing Industry Association says that taxes comprise 44% (or $268,000) of the cost of new housing in New South Wales and 30% of the cost of new housing in Brisbane and Melbourne. Taxes on new housing include stamp duty, infrastructure charges from local councils and ...

Colours have immediate effects on our thoughts, feelings and actions. Carefully select combinations of colours elicit the desired thoughts and actions; black for authority, white for purity, and the “safety” of bright light; grey is for ...

Commentators are suggesting an eventual decrease in demand for raw materials over coming years. Will this see a correction to the two speed economy? In September taxInsight we discussed some possible challenges in China’s economy and a report in the Australian Financial Review about a possible impact on the Australian mining industry in the event of a significant tightening of ...

If equity in the family business should only flow in bloodlines (spouses of family members may not own equity), you can implement a compulsory buy/sell agreement where the spouse ...

Wow! Jessica Irvine of the Sydney Morning Herald estimates the cost of complying with our tax system at 2.1% of our Gross Domestic Product (or equates that to 12% of the tax revenue collected). On that basis and noting that for the year ended June 2011, the Australian Bureau of Statistics measures our GDP at $1.39 trillion, the cost of tax compliance in Australia is $29 billion ...

FBT is not charged on a number of items which are predominantly used for business purposes. These include laptop and other portable computers, protective clothing, briefcases, calculators, tools of trade, business related software...

The Tax Office publishes small business benchmarks using data collated from income tax returns lodged by more than 100 different types of businesses. These have been updated recently with data from the 2008/09 financial year...

For 2011/12, large companies might be selected by the Tax Office to complete a Reportable Tax Position Schedule where they must disclose their most contestable and material tax circumstances...

Operating a business exposes the owner to risks including statutory penalties, business debts and common law damages. Holding assets in the name of a spouse...

More trees have been cut down and the paperwork burden substantially increased with the introduction of the mining tax legislation. The full name is the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) and comprises five Bills which were introduced into the House of Representatives on 2 November...

To the congratulations of other countries, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has succeeded in getting the carbon tax legislation through Parliament. She has furthermore announced that the Liberal/National Party Coalition will be unable to repeal the legislation if elected...

If a company doesn’t remit PAYG Withholding, those who were directors of the company at the time of the failure can be personally liable for a penalty equal to the unremitted PAYG. The Tax Office must first serve a Director’s Penalty Notice (DPN) ...

In the three months to 30 September, creditor-initiated Court liquidations were up by nearly 34% and receivership appointments up by 13%. Very high numbers of director-initiated corporate insolvencies were also the result of ...