The M.A.S Partners
newsletter.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has refused a husband’s argument that he could split his rental income with his (now estranged) wife even though the commercial property was registered under his name only.

A taxpayer has been unsuccessful before the AAT in seeking a discretion under the tax law to allow her to offset losses from a winery business against her other income.

The AAT has affirmed GST assessments levied at two property developers associated with the sale of real property between 2008 and 2009.

The AAT has affirmed an individual’s excess superannuation contributions tax liability. On 27 June 2008, the individual’s employer made a “top-up” superannuation contribution to a clearing account.

The ATO has issued a suite of rulings on:

• how GST applies to supplies of residential premises;

The Government has recently said that the existing fringe benefits tax (FBT) concessions in the law were not intended to allow employees to purchase goods and services (usually sold by the employer to the public) from their pre-tax income through salary packaging arrangements.

The ATO has updated the amounts the Commissioner will accept for 2012–2013 as estimates of the value of goods taken from trading stock for private use by taxpayers in certain specified industries.

The Government has issued for comment draft legislation proposing to implement its 2012 Budget announcement that it will remove the capital gains tax (CGT) discount for non-resident individuals on taxable Australian property, such as residential and commercial real estate and mining assets.

The Government has released draft regulations that propose to give effect to an earlier announcement made in October 2012 that it will provide certainty to the beneficiaries of superannuation death benefits.

In a recent decision, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) decided that a taxpayer’s interest in a business was disposed of when a “heads of agreement was executed”, and not when the formal contract of sale was executed.

The Government has announced the “cents per kilometre” rates for calculating tax deductions for car expenses for the 2012–2013 income year. Note that they are unchanged from 2011–2012

With the changes to the living-away-from-home rules (effective from 1 October 2012) affecting employees who are required by their employers to live away from home for work, greater care needs to be taken in assessing the fringe benefits tax (FBT) implications of living-away-from-home allowances (LAFHAs).

In response to a number of high profile cases lost by the Tax Commissioner, the Government has introduced legislation into Parliament that proposes to ensure the effective operation of the income tax general anti-avoidance law.