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The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2024 (Bill) has been passed by Parliament. The Bill overhauls Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime, and extends the regime to certain 'high-risk' services provided by lawyers, accountants, trust and company service providers, real estate professionals, and dealers in precious metals and stones.
Read MoreA recent case in New South Wales has highlighted an important payroll tax risk for businesses operating through related companies. The decision in Chief Commissioner of State Revenue v E Group Security Pty Ltd (No 2) [2022] NSWCA 259 demonstrates how arrangements within corporate groups can trigger payroll tax liabilities under the Payroll Tax Act 2007 (NSW).
Read MoreA common asset protection strategy for professionals and "at risk" individuals is to put the family home in the sole name of their "non-at-risk" spouse to protect the property from creditors.
This relies on an ancient principle known as the 'presumption of advancement'. In a bygone era, any amount paid by a husband to or for the benefit of his wife, was presumed to be a gift (unless there was evidence of a contrary intention).
Read MoreEmployee Share Schemes are about to be simpler to administer as regulations announced in the Federal Budget for 2022-23 come into effect. These changes include changes to disclosure requirements and removal of a taxing point for leaving employees.
Read MoreIf you or your client has a family trust you need to consider new ATO guidance that will likely mean more tax will be paid on future trust distributions and that the ATO may want to examine your past practices in distributing income – see in particular the Taxpayer Alert discussed below concerning distributing trust income to adult children.
Read MoreDo you have residential property held in a company or a unit trust and you don't want to pay the foreign person land tax or duty surcharges? - read on…
While there has been a lot of focus from law firms on the need to amend trust deeds for discretionary trusts that own residential land in NSW, little attention has been paid to the impact of the measures on a company or unit trust where a discretionary trust owns shares or units in the company or unit trust.
Read MoreOn 21 July 2020, the Commonwealth Government announced that the JobKeeper measure will be extended by a further period of 6 months. Dubbed "JobKeeper 2.0", the 2-tiered, watered-down JobKeeper extension will apply from 28 September 2020 to 28 March 2021.
Read MoreThis week the ATO will be sending reminders to employers that the superannuation guarantee amnesty ends on 7 September 2020.
Read MoreIn NSW when you buy land, you pay duty. When you buy shares in a company or units in a trust, you can also pay duty at land rates where the company or trust is considered a ‘landholder’. The NSW Government has now made it more likely that the acquisition of shares or units will be subject to duty at land rates, and also made it easier for them to collect that duty.
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