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With rising supply chain costs and disruptions on a global scale as a result of the pandemic, Australia has been a prime example of resilience by increasing reliance on domestic products to minimise shortages. Although we’ve increased the supply of Australian products, some organisations struggle to compete with global sellers. As supply chains slowly ease back into a pre-pandemic rhythm and import capabilities open back up to their full potential, to compete on a global scale more efficiently, this creates an opportunity to consider where trade policies via tariffs and quotas could be applied to even out the playing field.

The Australian Labor Party (Labor) today announced that, if elected, it will seek to introduce measures to "close tax loopholes exploited by multinational companies".

In this podcast, Kirsten Taylor-Martin and Simon Gow, Partners in the Private Business Tax and Advisory team at Grant Thornton Australia discuss setting up a family office.

Next generations are itching to take over – the question is are they ready? Future leaders should allow at least three to five years to demonstrate their credibility and develop leadership skills. There are high expectations of the next generation’s business acumen, financial and industry understanding, the ability to lead and inspire, and capability to overcome hurdles. Taking over the family business is a process that often spans across a number of years, and can be separated into succession of management (that is, responsibility and authority), and succession of ownership.

A foreign real estate buyer has been penalised $250,000 by the ATO after purchasing Australian residential properties without being authorised by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB). It was found that in addition to owning two established properties that were also in breach, the investor had purchased a further four unauthorised properties.

We have now been through numerous Top 1,000 ATO Taxpayer Reviews and are yet to hear a business state that the process is exactly as they envisaged, or less onerous than anticipated.

When considering starting a Family Office, it is important to know the potential pitfalls that may affect your wealth position and how every family member has the potential to impact this wealth – positively and negatively. And many are often an untapped resource.

There have been pressure systems gathering momentum along two fronts. Whilst they have largely gone unnoticed by many in the industry, collisions between the two have occurred and left some casualties in the M&A space. Previously, it was regarded by many deal-makers that employer obligations were quite low in risk. However, multiple enforcement agencies are focusing on unpaid employee entitlements and contract hire labour. The uptick in compliance activity has coincided with growth in the M&A space, leading many to believe there are huge levels of unquantified risk in the market – often not covered by warranty and indemnity insurance.

The complex multi-generation relationships in a family business define their success – and often underline their failures

Last week, APRA Deputy Chair John Lonsdale delivered a speech at the COBA CEO and Director Forum. Reflecting on the history of the mutual banking sector, Lonsdale highlighted APRA’s recent review of mutuals exiting the industry and their performance 12 months prior to their exit. It brought to the fore several issues that could lead to potential future mutual exits, such as poor performance on cost management, lending growth and profitability. APRA highlighted three core priorities to “support a strong, stable mutual sector”, being: • Cyber risk, including CPS 234 reviews • Risk culture • Contingency and continuity frameworks

Income Tax Assessment Amendment (Digital Games Tax Offset) Bill 2021: Measure for Consultation

In the past few years, we’ve seen increased focus from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) encouraging organisations to be transparent, demonstrate good corporate governance and have strong tax risk management frameworks in place. The ATO is now focusing on the tax governance of high-net-wealth privately owned groups – as part of their Top 500 and Next 5,000 programs.