Australian Tax Forum

Articles from the current issue:

• Capital gains tax issues with respect to various intangibles upon deconsolidation

  shopping_cart Add to cart 01 Oct 2019

  This article discusses, from a tax policy and legal perspective, the appropriate capital gains tax treatment of: (1) goodwill; (2) intellectual property rights; and (3) trade receivables in relation to deconsolidation. The consolidation legislation does not appear to expressly deal adequately with the issues that relevantly present themselves in this regard, which is an unfortunate lacuna considering that the presence of such assets could be said to be not uncommon in subsidiaries that are being disposed of by a tax consolidated group. Where available, guidance from the Australian Taxation Office fills this legislative gap only in part, and in its application is itself potentially problematic.

• A critique of judicial approaches to the use of extrinsic material in interpreting bilateral tax treaties in Australia

  shopping_cart Add to cart 01 Oct 2019

  This article begins by outlining the process by which a bilateral tax treaty is negotiated and given the force of law in Australia. It then discusses the principles relevant to interpreting international treaties under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. This is followed by a discussion of the relevant principles of Australian domestic law for the interpretation of statutes.

• A preliminary evaluation of Australia’s tax dispute resolution system in the context of the ATO’s reinvention program

  shopping_cart Add to cart 01 Oct 2019

  The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is currently undergoing a broad transformational change program, “Reinventing the ATO”, focused on achieving the ATO’s vision of being “a contemporary, service‑oriented organisation”. The reinvention program also incorporates the ATO’s adoption of the “Digital by default” initiative, which requires most people to use digital services to send and receive information to and from, and interact with, the ATO. Primarily based on publicly available documentary evidence, this article conducts a preliminary dispute systems design evaluation of the Australian tax dispute resolution system in the context of the reinvention program and particularly the “Digital by default” initiative, and consequently makes some recommendations on the tax dispute resolution system looking forward.

• Combining resource rent and income taxation for neutral impact

  shopping_cart Add to cart 01 Oct 2019

  Income tax subsequent to a resource rent tax (RRT) in the production phase of petroleum resource projects where the risk of losing RRT deductions is low should, in order to maintain the RRT’s neutral impact, be applied: first, to pre‑taxes cash flow cut by the RRT tax rate; and, second, to the minimal-risk assets created by substitution of RRT loss carry‑forward (with long‑term government bond rate (LTBR) uplift) for immediate cash rebates for losses. Absent income tax on the minimal‑risk assets, RRT loss uplift would be set at a post‑income tax level. Leaving the minimal‑risk assets embedded in aggregate post‑RRT flows for income tax purposes, as under traditional RRT design, justifies uplift at pre‑tax LTBR but, compared to ideal assimilation of RRT and income tax, imposes investment distortions and, potentially, greater income tax impost on investors.

• Taxpayer rights in Australia? Hope springs eternal

  shopping_cart Add to cart 01 Oct 2019

  This article critically reviews selected topics covered by recent cases that have impacted on taxpayer rights.