ATO

There is a bill making its way through Parliament at the moment, the Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Tax Integrity and Other Measures No. 1) Bill 2019, that could be described as an omnibus bill — a quick look at its table of contents can confirm this. The bill however met with amendments in the Senate,

For some time now, the ATO has been making efforts to transition tax practitioners from the incumbent tax agent and BAS agent portals to its new Online services for agents system.  A public beta version closed in August last year, and since then detailed information has been made available, as well as information on related

Every (yes, every) return to be ATO-scrutinisedLove and affection re-think with commercial debt forgivenessStatement of tax recordNo discretion to remit superannuation excess transfer balance taxResidential vacancy fee: Annual return help, foreign ownersRetirement income review: details revealed PAYGW for staff in foreign service equalised through new admin instrumentTax debt relief appeal based on “serious hardship” not

The Federal Court has held that the Taxation Commissioner Chris Jordan be allowed access to information that one of his Second Commissioners was holding as “protected information” about the tax affairs of Sydney accountant Vanda Russell Gould. Gould had claimed he was defamed in comments made by Jordan at the National Press Club in July

In the interests of regulatory reform and simpler tax laws, the Australian government has requested the Board of Taxation to seek ideas for tax system improvement from its stakeholders, businesses and the community. The resulting initiative is called Sounding Board, which is an innovative online collaboration platform to submit, discuss and vote on ideas to

SMSF status change if returns lateUse of cash to be restrictedOpt-out insurance change to SIS actSocial security payments offshore to require proof of lifeSG opt-out, NALI expands, LRBA share included in TSBEmployee share scheme concession access tightensLCT refunds; Interest on ATO super; Redundancy concession age aligns to pension ageAustralia-Israel DTA initiatedNo breach of SIS act

The ATO has issued a reminder that the single touch payroll (STP) mandatory adoption deadline is imminent. While the initial deadline was 1 July 2019, the ATO provided a three month transition period for employers that needed more time. This 30 September deadline has now passed. While the number of employers reporting through STP tripled

Your employer clients may have heard now and then about certain fringe benefits that, while still subject to the tax, do not have the same reporting burden as other benefits. There can be consequential or flow-on affects from this exemption from reporting, such as the influence this can have on adjusted taxable income (ATI). Employers

The latest statistical report from APRA has been released (here’s a link to download it), which of course mainly focuses on the APRA-regulated superannuation funds in the retail and industry sectors. But the APRA statistics also make passing mention of ATO-regulated funds, the SMSF sector, which from June 2018 to June 2019 grew in total

The “Reducing Pressure on Housing Affordability Measure” — a bill with a second part that is otherwise known as the super downsizer scheme — started on 1 July 2018 and has allowed older Australians to sell their homes and contribute up to $300,000 of the proceeds from the sale into super. Recent figures from the ATO