Our latest insights

With the implementation of the Director Identification Numbers (DIN’s or Director ID’s) growing imminent, it will be important to understand the new obligations for those operating in the capacity of a Director, as failure to apply for a DIN within the required time frame will leave you open to both criminal and civil penalties.

The Queensland Parliament has passed legislation expanding the application of mandatory Project Bank Accounts (PBA’s) and renaming them to Project Trust Accounts (PTA’s).

The last few years have by and large been spent tightening the taxation screws on property investors in an attempt to deal with the housing affordability issue – but it has been a blanket approach.

The New South Wales Government has moved to extend rent relief measures for commercial tenancies, providing an additional land tax concession to commercial landlords who provide relief.

The Hon. Rob Lucas, Treasurer of South Australia last week announced the extension and expansion of the State’s COVID-19 rent relief measures.

The National Cabinet’s mandatory code of conduct for commercial tenancies is now starting to be implemented by each of the States, with most of the States providing announcements around their versions of concessions for landlords.

Commercial property has been a key focus for policy makers, with a major component of the Prime Minister’s hibernation strategy being rent relief and the recently finalised Commercial Tenancy Code.

After continued jostling with industry groups over the weekend, Prime Minister Scott Morrison today revealed the final details of the mandatory Commercial Tenancies Code for commercial and retail leases. This is generally in line with the update the Prime Minister gave last Friday.

In recent years we’ve seen the release of AASB 15 “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” and Tax Ruling 2018/3 “Tax treatment of long term construction contracts” (formerly IT 2450). Industry participants and their advisors need to understand the impact these may have on the timing and quantum of their revenue each year.

Legislation seeking to deny a deduction for the costs of holding Vacant Land (Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2019) has been amended by the Senate and subsequently approved by the House of Representatives on 22 October 2019.

The new rules will apply to individuals, trusts (which are not widely held) and to self-managed super funds (SMSF’s).

There is a lot of noise around the property sector at the moment – and it’s not all positive. Prices are down – but this shouldn’t be a surprise when some markets (namely Sydney & Melbourne) saw unprecedented hikes in recent years.