Tax « Australian Regulatory Compliance Review from Langes+ Lawyers

June 19, 2013

Registration of financial advisers as tax agents

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services has recommended that, subject to transitional provisions, the proposed amendments contained in schedules 3 and 4 to the Tax Laws Amendment (2013 Measures No. 2) Bill 2013 be reintroduced and passed.

Schedules 3 and 4 contained proposed amendments that would bring financial advisers who provide tax advice into the tax agent regulatory regime overseen by the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB).

The Committee recommended that transitional arrangements be amended to stipulate that, from 1 July 2013 until 31 December 2014 , unregistered financial services licensees and representatives may provide tax (financial) advice services on condition that they accompany such a service with a disclaimer.

Treasury has published a paper outlining the proposed educational and experience requirements for tax (financial) advisers an individual would need to meet to be registered as a tax (financial) adviser as envisaged in the amendments.

Background

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Posted 19th June 2013 by David Jacobson in Financial Services, Future of Financial Advice Reforms, Tax

June 11, 2013

Lost and Unclaimed Superannuation Money Discussion Paper

The Government recently announced that it will further increase the account balance threshold below which lost superannuation accounts are transferred to the ATO from $2000 to $2,500 from 31 December 2015 and to $3,000 from 31 December 2016.

As part of this consultation process the Government has now released for public consultation the Lost and Unclaimed Superannuation Money Discussion Paper.

The discussion paper seeks views on new strategies to both reduce the number of lost and unnecessary accounts and prevent the proliferation of these accounts into the future.

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Posted 11th June 2013 by David Jacobson in Financial Services, Superannuation, Tax

May 30, 2013

Financial advisers need to be registered to provide tax advice

ASIC has issued information relating to the licensing of financial advisers who provide tax advice.

From 1 July 2013 financial advisers providing tax advice will need to register with the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA). Currently these entities are exempted from the taxation agent services regime. This exemption will end on 30 June 2013.

Financial advisers will continue to be licensed (or authorised under an Australian financial services (AFS) licence), and the obligations under the Corporations Act 2001 are not affected by the proposed regulatory framework. ASIC will continue to regulate the AFS licensing regime, independently of the TPB. Financial advisers who provide tax advice will need to comply with new requirements under TASA which will supplement their existing skills and competencies to cover tax advice.

UPDATE 10 June 2013: The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services has initiated an inquiry into a regulatory framework for tax (financial) advice services (previously Tax Laws Amendment (2013 Measures No. 2) Bill 2013, Schedules 3 and 4)

Background

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Posted 30th May 2013 by David Jacobson in Corporations Act, Financial Services, Tax

Charities defined

The Government has introduced the Charities Bill 2013 into the House of Representatives.

The Bill contains a statutory definition of "charity".

Charity means an entity:
(a) that is a not-for-profit entity; and
(b) all of the purposes of which are:
(i) charitable purposes that are for the public benefit (see Division 2 of this Part); or
(ii) purposes that are incidental or ancillary to, and in furtherance or in aid of, purposes of the entity covered by subparagraph (i); and
Note 1: In determining the purposes of the entity, have regard to the entity’s governing rules, its activities and any other relevant matter.
Note 2: The requirement in subparagraph (b)(i) that a purpose be for the public benefit does not apply to certain entities (see section 9).
(c) none of the purposes of which are disqualifying purposes (see Division 3) ; and
(d) that is not an individual, a political party or a government entity.

The proposed start date for the statutory definition of charity will be 1 January 2014.

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Posted 30th May 2013 by David Jacobson in Charities, Not-for-profit sector, Tax

May 13, 2013

Higher concessional superannuation contributions cap

The Government has released for public consultation an exposure draft of the legislation to implement the higher concessional superannuation contributions cap for older individuals announced by the Government on 5 April 2013.

The Government will provide an unindexed $35,000 concessional cap to anyone who meets certain age requirements.

The start date for the new higher cap will be 1 July 2013 for people aged 60 and over. Individuals aged 50 and over will be able to access the higher cap from 1 July 2014.

The higher cap is temporary and will cease when the general cap indexes to $35,000 (expected to be 1 July 2018).

UPDATE 30 May 2013: Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (Increased Concessional Contributions Cap and Other Measures) Bill 2013 has been passed by the House of Representatives.

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Posted 13th May 2013 by David Jacobson in Superannuation, Tax

May 2, 2013

OAIC’s Guide to Information Security

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has published a final version of its Guide to Information Security: ‘Reasonable steps’ to protect personal information.

The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, said that 100% of the high profile investigations he completed in 2011–12 involved data security issues.

Information security obligations for businesses are contained in the National Privacy Principles, the credit reporting provisions in the Privacy Act and the Tax File Number Guidelines.

The guide provides guidance on information security, specifically the reasonable steps entities are required to take under the Privacy Act to protect the personal information they hold.

It provides examples of steps and strategies which may be reasonable for an entity to take.

This could include taking steps and implementing strategies to manage the following:
• governance
• ICT security
• data breaches
• physical security
• personnel security and training
• workplace policies
• the information life cycle
• standards
• regular monitoring and review.

The guide recommends businesses build privacy and information security measures into their processes, systems, products and initiatives at the design stage.

In the amendments that commence on 12 March 2014, the security of personal information is dealt with in APP 11. The obligations in APP 11 are similar to those in NPP/IPP 4. However, APP 11 will require an entity to take reasonable steps to protect personal information from ‘interference’ (eg hacking), as well as from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Langes can assist you to review your privacy policy to address information security issues.

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Posted 2nd May 2013 by David Jacobson in Consumer Law, National Credit Code, Privacy, Tax

April 26, 2013

Deferral of abolition of NSW duties

The NSW Premier has announced that the following categories of NSW stamp duty, which were due to be abolished as from 1 July 2013, will continue to be charged indefinitely in order to fund education reforms:

transfer duty on unquoted marketable securities;
transfer duty on non-real (ie, non-land) business assets; and
mortgage duty (unless already exempt).

This means that duty will continue to be charged on transactions involving:

transfers of, or declarations of trust over shares in unlisted companies registered in NSW; units in unit trusts scheme where the register is maintained in NSW or, if outside Australia, then the manager is a NSW company or natural person resident in NSW; goodwill and intellectual property (including patents and trademarks) of a business carried on in NSW; statutory licences or permissions granted under Commonwealth law and exercised in respect of NSW; statutory licences, permissions or poker machine entitlements granted under NSW law; and
loans where security is granted over property wholly or partly in NSW, or the making of further advances where such mortgage or charge has already been granted.

More details are expected in the NSW State Budget.

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Posted 26th April 2013 by David Jacobson in Business Planning, Financial Services, Tax, Uncategorized

April 22, 2013

The Australian Business Register and business names

Treasury has released for comment an Exposure Draft of A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. A).

The proposed regulations would ensure that unregistered business names that were on the Australian Business Register (ABR) before 28 May 2013 (when the transition period ends) can continue to be publicly disclosed by the Registrar of the ABR until 30 June 2014 giving them additional time to register on the Business Names Register.

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Posted 22nd April 2013 by David Jacobson in Business names, Tax

April 16, 2013

Proposed changes to self-education expense deductions

The Commonwealth Government has announced it proposes to cap tax deductions for work related self-education expenses.

From 1 July 2014, work related self-education expenses will be subject to an annual cap of $2,000 a person.

Currently employers are not liable for fringe benefits tax for education and training they provide to their employees – this treatment will be retained, unless an employee salary sacrifices to obtain these benefits.

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Posted 16th April 2013 by David Jacobson in Tax, Workplace

April 9, 2013

Draft statutory definition of charity

Treasury has released for comment a draft Charities Bill 2013 which will introduce a statutory definition of "charity", applicable across all Commonwealth laws for the first time.

The definition is:

charity means an entity:
(a) that is a not-for-profit entity; and
(b) all of the purposes of which are:
(i) charitable purposes (see Part 3) that are for the public benefit (see Division 2 of this Part); or
(ii) purposes that are incidental or ancillary to, and in furtherance or in aid of, purposes of the entity covered by subparagraph (i); and
Note 1: In determining the purposes of the entity, have regard to the entity’s governing rules, its activities and any other relevant matter.
Note 2: The requirement in subparagraph (b)(i) that a purpose be for the public benefit does not apply to certain entities (see section 9).
(c) none of the purposes of which are disqualifying purposes (see Division 3) ; and
(d) that is not an individual, a political party or a government entity.

The definition will apply from 1 January 2014.

As a result of the introduction of a definition of charity and charitable purpose in the Charities Bill 2013, a number of consequential amendments to Commonwealth legislation and transitional arrangements are required. These are set out in the draft Charities (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2013.
(more...)

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Posted 9th April 2013 by David Jacobson in Charities, Not-for-profit sector, Tax