The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (Tribunal) in the case of Ariss v Commissioner of Taxation [2019] AATA 2958 has held that money generated by the Taxpayer’s activities as an IT consultant, and split between the Taxpayer and his wife via a third-party trust arrangement, was in fact personal services income (PSI) and directly assessable to the Taxpayer.
The Federal Court of Australia Full Court in the case of Burton v Commissioner of Taxation [2019] FCAFC 141 rejected the taxpayer’s appeal in relation to an earlier Federal Court decision to deny the taxpayer claiming the full foreign Income Tax Offset (FITO) available under section 770-10 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) (ITAA 1997).
The High Court in the case of Glencore International AG & Ors v Federal Commissioner of Taxation [2019] HCA 26 has unanimously rejected an application for an injunction brought by the Glencore Group (Glencore) to restrain the Federal Commissioner of Taxation (Commissioner) from using documents that were released as a part of the ‘Paradise Papers.’
In Telgrove Pty Ltd t/as P & E Francis Plant Hire v Commissioner of State Revenue [2019] QCAT 199, Telgrove Pty Ltd (Telgrove), as the designated group employer, had made an ‘exclusion order’ to request that Telgrove and 3 other entities be excluded from a list of six entities that were determined to be a payroll tax group by the Queensland Commissioner of State Revenue (Commissioner). The Commissioner rejected this exclusion application and issued reassessment notices to Telgrove to tax the six entities (Group Members) as a group from the 2011/12 financial year and apply penalty tax and interest for the period.
The Federal Commissioner of Taxation (Commissioner) has had a recent win in the case of Campbell v Commissioner of Taxation [2019] AATA 2043. In this case, Ms Catherine Campbell (Taxpayer) had received distributions from a New Zealand-based trust estate totalling $463,200 across the 2013 and 2014 income years.
The Taxpayer failed to return these amounts as income and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (Tribunal) held that the Taxpayer was in receipt of distributions from a foreign trust that are assessable pursuant to section 99B(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) (1936 Act).
The Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Tax Integrity and Other Measures No. 1) Bill 2019 (Cth) (Bill) was introduced to the House of Representatives on 24 July 2019 and proposes to make a raft of legislative changes to improve the integrity of Australia’s tax system.
On 17 July 2019, the Commissioner of Taxation (Commissioner) released Taxation Determination (TD) 2019/12, which clarifies what types of costs are considered to be debt deductions within the scope of Australia’s thin capitalisation regime.
In YCNM and Federal Commissioner of Taxation [2019] AATA 1592, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), found that a lump sum payment made under an income protection insurance policy was partly assessable as income under section 6-5 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) (Act). The AAT concluded that the portion of the lump sum attributable to a superannuation contribution insurance policy was not assessable as income.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has said that the income tax rules and transfer pricing rules ‘can be read to operate harmoniously’.
In Scone Race Club Limited v Commissioner of Taxation [2019] FCA 967, Justice Logan of the Federal Court of Australia, allowing the appeal, concluded that Scone Race Club Limited (Taxpayer) was not deemed to be an employer under section 12(8)(a) and (b) of the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (Cth) (Act). Consequently, the Taxpayer was not liable to make superannuation contributions to jockeys in respect of fees for riding in horse races and barrier trials.