Our latest insights

The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has announced its strategic priorities for 2022-23 including where audit and enforcement activities will be undertaken in relation to wage underpayments.

As we come to the end of the financial year, its timely to review your upcoming tax compliance obligations. For multinational entities, the disclosures and complexities of tax compliance generally have never been more complex or challenging. Here are some of the main IDS issues to be aware of.

The ATO released its June 2022 final Legal Professional Privilege (LPP) Protocol setting out the ATO's recommended approach for taxpayers to identify LPP communications and making LPP claims to the ATO in response to a formal notice to produce documents.

This financial year was a year of many changes in the R&D space – a new government, borders re-opening Australia to the world, easing supply chain pressures driving opportunities for trade, and an appetite to boost on-shore manufacturing.

Many people are getting excited about the Government’s pre-election promise to exempt electric cars from Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) as of 1 July 2022. But before you rush to order your new vehicle, there are a few considerations for you to take into account. While this measure is expected to take effect shortly, there is no legislation for this yet – not even in draft – and parliament’s next sitting days have not been announced. This means any new legislation will no doubt need to be retrospective to have effect from 1 July 2022.

As the financial year draws to a close, now is the time for property developers to review their projects and determine whether there has been a change of intended or actual use of any residential premises which may require a GST adjustment under Division 129 of the GST Act.

In October 2021, over 135 jurisdictions (including Australia) joined a ground-breaking plan to update key elements of the international tax system. The Global Anti-Base Erosion Rules (GloBE) are intended to ensure large multinational enterprises pay a minimum level of tax on the income arising in each of the jurisdictions where they operate. The OECD released the Pillar Two Model Rules on 20 December 2021, and Commentary to accompany the Rules on 14 March 2022. Further guidance is expected by way of an Implementation Framework, but that may not be completed and available until the end of 2022.

The ATO has recently issued a new class ruling expanding on what products qualify as a ‘portable electronic device’ for FBT exemption purposes. In addition to devices that were designed to operate as a small, portable complete unit without an external power supply such as laptops, mobile phones and similar devices, the new ruling extends to include portable display monitors that run in connection with phones, tablets, etc. Espresso Displays were an instrumental part of the process, having obtained the ruling for their portable screens.

With the end of the financial year less than a month away, now is an opportune time to review your business affairs as part of your year-end tax planning

Australia entered into the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (“ECTA”) on 2 April 2022. One surprising feature of the ECTA was the side agreement for Australia to essentially overturn, by way of domestic legislation, the result of the full Federal Court decision of Satyam Computer Services Limited v Commissioner of Taxation [2018] FCAFC 172. That case held that Australia had taxing rights over certain income (under the tax treaty between Australia and India) derived by primarily Indian offshore IT companies, even though those services were performed offshore, and even where Australia’s domestic legislation did not otherwise impose tax.

When it comes to M&A transactions, businesses can often be eligible for GST refunds – but how do you determine if this is the case, and how much is recoverable? In our latest Tax in M&A series, we look at a threshold test that can be applied to transactions whereby businesses only make limited financial supplies. But there is a limit to how much GST can be claimed back when the Financial Acquisitions Threshold (‘FAT’) has been exceeded.

AusTrade announced the opening of the next round of the 2023 Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) program. Applications are proposed to open for 5 weeks, from 31 May to 5 July 2022. The EMDG program is the Federal Government’s cornerstone funding program encouraging Australian businesses to seek export opportunities for their goods, services, intellectual property and software. The program allows businesses to access grants over an 8 year period, or up to a total funding amount of $770,000. The reform model is available to businesses with a turnover of less than $20m as at 30 June 2022.