The Federal Budget measure of allowing businesses to fully write-off eligible assets is a boon to Australian businesses, even though the measure is temporary. Just to recap, businesses with aggregated annual turnover of less than $5 billion will be able to deduct the full cost of eligible capital assets acquired from 7:30pm AEDT on 6...

In NSW, surcharge purchaser duty applies to acquisitions of NSW residential land by foreign persons, and surcharge land tax applies to foreign persons who are owners of residential land in NSW. Surcharge purchaser duty and surcharge land tax (together known as the “foreign surcharges”) are payable in addition to any other duty or land tax...

The ATO has clarified its position regarding loans, and the repayments of loans that may have been put on hold for the period that COVID-19 has a grip on the economy and our lives. An important sidebar to the ATO’s announcement is the implications regarding Division 7A — just in case you have had some...

Over the first quarter of this financial year, the government has initiated two new data matching programs, using data that the ATO holds. Data matching involves bringing together data from different sources and comparing it. For example, records from different agencies or businesses are compared, with the results possibly identifying people who are being paid...

Legislation has been put in place to extend the JobKeeper scheme beyond its original sunset date, although the rates of payment and certain other details have been altered. The scheme is now to run until March next year, with one version lasting until 3 January and another version in place from then until 28 March....

The pandemic period under which we labour continues to have outcomes that may at first have not been obvious, but as time and lodgement considerations come to pass, more taxation consequences edge their way out of the woodwork. One such outcome is where employees have been garaging work cars at their homes due to COVID-19,...

The Federal Government announced a six-month moratorium on evictions of commercial and residential tenants during the COVID-19 health pandemic. This moratorium (and its accompanying code of conduct leasing principles) will inevitably affect SMSFs, which are reasonably heavily invested in real property, according to statistics. LEASING PRINCIPLESA moratorium on evictions means that SMSF landlords face the...

The ATO has highlighted the fact that due to COVID-19, a trustee may experience liquidity issues that may affect a trust’s ability to satisfy a beneficiary’s entitlement. This may happen where financial institutions impose restrictions that affect the way a trustee can deal with its assets. The ATO states that where a present entitlement arose...

The extension of the instant asset write-off from $30,000 to $150,000 until 31 December 2020, as part of the Federal Government’s COVID-19 stimulus measures, provides an opportunity to look at its application to motor vehicles. Note that in addition to the higher write off amount, the business turnover threshold test for eligibility was increased to...

If your business has made tax losses in years to the current one, but you haven’t yet offset all those losses, you can still carry these forward and claim a deduction for them in a later year — as long as you meet all the requirements of the tax law. Your business structure will affect...