The M.A.S Partners
newsletter.

In a recent decision, the AAT found a taxpayer was at all relevant times a beneficiary of a trust estate and that an amended assessment issued in April 2010 for the 2005 tax year was issued within time – that is, the Commissioner was allowed, in this instance, up to four years to issue an amended assessment.

The Government has announced that it will introduce penalties to deter promoters of illegal early release superannuation schemes. These schemes usually involve a promoter offering to assist individuals to gain early access to their super before they retire.

The ATO has been publishing small business benchmarks since 2009 as part of its strategy to help small businesses to compare their performances against similar businesses. The benchmarks are also used by the ATO to identify taxpayers who may be under-declaring income.

The Government’s Business Tax Working Group has recently released a discussion paper highlighting a number of possible ways in which a company tax rate cut could be funded from within the business tax system.

The ATO has highlighted a number of areas that it will focus on in its compliance activities this year.

The Commissioner has been successful before the Federal Court in overturning an earlier decision that had held that around $4.7 million deposited into a taxpayer’s bank account from an overseas bank were loans and that payments made in respect of the loans were deductible interest.