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Your Association at work - 2 December 2009 update

Wednesday 2 December, 2009
Submission - Tax Law Amendment (Transfer of Provisions) Bill 2009 (the tax law rewrites)
Taxpayers Australia is currently preparing a submission to Treasury in relation to the rewrite of certain provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and Taxation Administration Act 1953.

In general, Taxpayers Australia welcomes the rewrite of the provisions. Given that the rewrite has been undertaken with no intention to change the interpretation of the law; our comments have been directed to the application and relevance of the new provisions.

Joint Submission - Draft Taxation Ruling TR 2009/D5
Taxpayers Australia has recently made a joint submission with a number of professional bodies to the Tax Office in relation to TR 2009/D5. The draft ruling considers the issue of when a dividend will be included in the capital proceeds from a disposal of shares that happens under a contract or a Scheme of Arrangement.

NTLG- Superannuation Technical sub-group
Taxpayers Australia has represented its members by participating in a Superannuation Technical NTLG Sub-group telephone meeting on 24 November 2009. The major themes of discussions were as follows:

• An update on recently published and withdrawn Public Rulings, Practice Statements and ATO Interpretive Decisions (IDs)
• An update on litigation carried out by the Tax Office; of the 7 cases involved since August only one was decided unfavourably for the Tax Office - though a couple are subject to appeal, and
• Technical discussions in relation to excess contributions tax, benefits taxation and death benefit income streams paid to dependants when the member was in accumulation phase.

Tax Discussion Group
Taxpayers Australia conducted tax discussion group sessions on 30 November and 3 December 2009 in Melbourne and Sydney respectively. The following topics were discussed during the sessions:

• Tax Laws Amendment (2009 Measures No 6) Bill
• Cases relating to:
  • Main residence exemption
  • Self-education expenses
  • Commercial debt forgiveness
• IDs on the tax break legislation.