September 2019

Salary Packaging – Structuring salary packaging arrangements: Dealing with luxury car adjustments

It is important to structure salary sacrificing arrangements to be beneficial to both the employer and employee. This often involves the employer passing on costs associated with providing the benefit. One of these costs is the luxury car adjustment. This article discusses whether this adjustment is relevant to income tax exempt employers and whether the […]

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Payroll Q&A – Mayor and councillor allowances

Question Councillors receive an allowance which is determined by each council within limits set by the Victorian Government. Mayors and councillor allowances are also subject to the addition of 9.5% superannuation. Is the allowance taxable to the mayor and councillors? Answer Any remuneration, sitting fee or allowance paid to a local government elected member is

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Eligibility – Income tax exemption: Is it mandatory for a charity to register with the ACNC?

Where an organisation’s purposes qualify it as a charity under tax law and it is eligible for income tax exemption as a result, does the entity have a choice of whether to register with the ACNC to be income tax exempt?   Registration with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) is a matter of

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GST – GSTR 2006/6: What constitutes an ‘improvement’ of land?

The ATO has broadened its formal view of the concept of ‘improvement’ for the purposes of GST-free supplies of land and supplies taxed under the margin scheme. The change is set out in amendments to GSTR 2006/6. The statutory context Under s. 38-445 of the GST Act, in certain circumstances the following supplies are GST-free:

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FBT Q&A – Reimbursing relocation costs: Bond clean of rental property

Question An employee has provided receipts for reimbursement of their relocation costs. One of the receipts is for a bond clean of his prior residence. Would this expense be exempt from FBT under s. 58c (or any other provisions)? Answer Section 58C will not cover such expenditure because the exemption deals with costs that are

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Payroll – Director Penalty Notice: ASIC records used as evidence

A recent Western Australia case (DCT v Lim [2019] WADC 106 (26 July 2019)) illustrates  that directors penalty notices (DPNs) can be validly served by being posted to addresses obtained from ASIC records. We have considered the facts of this case through a worked example scenario. Worked example Background Mr Jones is the sole director

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Eligibility & FBT – Securing PBI status during an FBT year: Effect on FBT exemption cap

If an employer gains public benevolent institution (PBI) status during the FBT year, do employees become eligible to use the full $30,000 FBT exemption cap in that year? In the June 2019 TaxEd Update, we considered the FBT implications of a public benevolent institution (PBI) that was previously entitled to the higher $30,000 FBT cap

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GST Q&A – TPAR reporting: Do I need to report sponsorship payments?

Question As a local government entity, do we need to report sponsorship payments in the taxable payments annual report (‘TPAR’)? In particular, would sponsorship fees for a food festival event be reportable? Answer Government entities, whether federal, state, territory or local, are required to report the total payments they make to an entity for providing

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FBT Q&A – Provision of tools of trade to on-call employees

Question We have several employees who are on-call to support one of our teams. These employees respond to after-hours call outs to service a range of requests, with the most common arising from weekend services. These employees can use our utility vehicles for private use, and we have not required employee contributions for the private

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FBT Q&A – Returning input tax credits to employees: Clarifying treatment of GST

Question This Q&A clarifies a response from our FBT Q&A – Expense payment fringe benefits: Returning input tax credits to employees, which was issued in our July 2019 TaxEd Update. One of our members asked the following question: ‘We provide expense payment fringe benefits to our employees. This, in part, involves returning input tax credits

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