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01st Oct, 2017
The Medicare Levy Amendment (National Disability Insurance Scheme Funding) Bill 2017 has been introduced to implement the Government’s 2017–2018 Budget announcement to increase the Medicare levy by 0.5% to 2.5% from 1 July 2019 in order to help finance the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Nine other Bills have been introduced to increase the following rates that are linked to the top personal tax rate.
01st Oct, 2017
Draft legislation has been released to implement 2017–2018 Federal Budget measures relating to the CGT liability of foreign residents. The measures, which applied from 9 May 2017:
01st Oct, 2017
The Commissioner has made a determination to modify the time at which the vendor is entitled to a tax credit in respect of an amount withheld under the foreign resident CGT withholding rules.
The modification, applicable for transactions entered into on or after 1 July 2016, ensures that, where a settlement period for a transaction covers more than one income year for the vendor, the credit entitlement will be available in the same year as that in which the transaction giving rise to the payment to the ATO is recognised for tax purposes for the vendor.
01st Oct, 2017
The ATO has released a draft guideline on how they will apply the new “similar business test” to supplement the existing “same business test” used for testing whether a company can utilise an earlier year tax loss.
The draft guideline says the similar business test will operate in a way that is comparable to the same business test, and that the overall business of a company must satisfy the similar business test to access losses. The focus remains on the identity of a business, as well as continuity of business activities to generate assessable income.
01st Oct, 2017
Despite wide publicity on the issue, the ATO has reminded taxpayers that it is increasing its scrutiny on work-related expenses. Last year over 6.3 million people made a work-related expense claim for clothing and laundry expenses, totalling almost $1.8 billion. Common mistakes the ATO has seen include people claiming ineligible clothing, claiming for something without having spent the money, and not being able to explain the basis for how the claim was calculated.
01st Oct, 2017
The ATO says nil activity statements can be generated early in some cases. Under normal bulk processes, activity statements generally issue from the ATO by the end of the month.
However, the ATO says there may be a specific reason for a business to access its activity statements early, such as: if you are a short-term visitor (for example, you are an entertainer or sports person and will be leaving during the relevant period); or know that you will be travelling when an activity statement is due.