TR 2017/D6 – Deductibility of employees’ travel expenses (Part I) On 28 June 2017, the Commissioner issued TR 2017/D6 entitled Income tax and fringe benefits tax: when are deductions allowed for employees’ travel expenses?. The draft ruling sets out the Commissioner’s preliminary views on the general principles for determining whether an employee can deduct travel … Read more
TR 2017/D6 – Deductibility of employees’ travel expenses (Part II) In this second part of our discussion of TR 2017/D6, we summarise the numerous examples contained within the draft ruling. The proposed binding section of the draft Ruling contains 18 detailed examples illustrating the principles discussed above. Example 16 which considers the followings types of … Read more
Single Touch Payroll (STP) will apply to organisations with 20 or more employees (Substantial Employers), from 1 July 2018. Employers with 19 or fewer employees will have the option of adopting STP. However, STP-ready employers will be able to choose to adopt STP reporting earlier than 1 July 2018. Mandatory STP Reporting You will need … Read more
Last year, we drew attention to the Brisbane Bears Case. This decision dealt with payroll tax in the context of payments made by a sporting club to sportspersons for use of their images etc. Payroll tax is a state/territory tax. However, as the earlier article noted, payments for use of player images also implicitly raise … Read more
Question Where a course of study has the relevant nexus to an employee’s income producing activities it will be considered otherwise deductible for FBT purpose. Does the student amenities fee also receive this treatment? In particular, we will pay for an employee’s cost of subjects that are studied at university. In terms of the student … Read more
Question We provided a small car for two employees during the FBT year as follows: Employee 1 – From 1/4/16 to 20/11/16, the car is exclusively allocated to the employee for operational use during the day and driven home at night. Employee 2 – From 21/11/16 to 31/3/17, the car is allocated to the general car pool for … Read more
Question We give Gift/Voucher cards to staff members where all of the following circumstances apply: We give a Gift/Voucher card to a staff member for reward/recognition. These cards are given on an infrequent and irregular base. The value of a card is equal to or greater than the threshold value ($300). Is the gift card … Read more
Question Council charges for the ‘assessment of engineering plans as part of planning permits’. This fee is a Council set fee for assessing plans when the planning permit does not require a subdivision, assessment has to be carried out by Council and not a third party. We are assessing the fee using the flowchart for … Read more
Question Can you please clarify if we should be remitting GST on Grants received from other Government Bodies? Alternatively, should they be treated individually based on the purpose of the Grant? Answer Each grant would need to be treated separately. However, we observe that payments between two government entities may either be: grants; or payments … Read more
Question An employee staff social club is funded primarily by fortnightly after-tax deductions from employees’ pay. Other sources of funding include an employer contribution and various fundraising events. Annual turnover is approaching $150,000. What GST issues arise regarding the need to register for GST? How is the employer contribution treated? Would the club be … Read more