Greenwoods and Freehills Weekly Tax Highlights - Week Ended 24.4.09

ATO Documents

Released 22.4.09

Class Rulings
CR 2009/19: Income tax: Westpac Banking Corporation: Westpac Stapled Preferred Securities II 
CR 2009/20: Income tax: New Hope Corporation Limited - Deferred Employee Share Plan
CR 2009/21: Income tax: New Hope Corporation Limited - Exempt Employee Share Plan
CR 2009/22: Income tax: Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative Limited: return of capital
Product Rulings
PR 2009/17: Income tax: KTC Mahogany Project 2009
PR 2009/18: Income tax: Great Southern 2009 High Value Timber Project - Preferred Financier 
Taxation Ruling
TR 2009/2: Income tax: genuine redundancy payments
Notice of Withdrawals 
TD 1993/14: Income tax: can a payment in lieu of notice, on termination of employment, be treated as a bona fide redundancy payment?
TD 1993/17: Income tax: is a redundancy payment from a redundancy trust, established based on the Building Industry Agreement of 1 October 1987, considered to be a bona fide redundancy payment under section 27F of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936?

Released 23.04.09

Taxpayer Alerts
TA 2009/9: Contrived cross-border arrangements that seek to generate debt deductions for non-assessable non-exempt income

Released 24.04.09

Interpretative Decisions
ATO ID 2009/21: Whether a United States head lessor of substantial equipment carries on business in Australia through a deemed permanent establishment under the United States Convention
ATO ID 2009/22: Voting interest in a company in relation to foreign non-portfolio dividends
ATO ID 2009/23: Classification of German Trade Tax as Federal Foreign Tax
ATO ID 2009/24: Reportable fringe benefits: excluded fringe benefit - 'occasional' travel 
ATO ID 2009/25: Trading Stock: live stock - working beast - birds for display in a tourist park
ATO ID 2009/26: Primary Production: farm management deposit - assessable primary production income
ATO ID 2009/27: ADI Guarantee Fee Deduction 

Released 21.4.09

The Inspector-General of Taxation has released the Terms of Reference and Submission Guidelines for his Review into the implications of any delayed or changed ATO advice on significant issues. The stated reasons for the review are that, during consultations last year, various business and tax practitioner groups have stated that ATO views have undergone so-called "u-turns" on significant interpretative issues or past practices. Particular concerns were raised with the retrospective effect of changed Tax Office views or practice and their consequential adverse impacts.

Released 22.4.09

The Assistant Treasurer has released for consultation a draft regulation which will facilitate the treatment of certain term subordinated notes as debt for the purposes of the debt/equity tax rules.The regulation will apply to payments made under such notes on or after 1 July 2001. The regulation aims to ensure that 'solvency clauses' do not preclude certain term subordinated notes from being debt for the purposes of the debt/equity tax rules. These clauses allow the issuer to defer payment on the note where payment would result in the issuer becoming insolvent or not maintaining its capital adequacy ratio under prudential requirements issued by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) (or a comparable foreign regulator). While the clauses are commonly found in Lower Tier 2 term subordinated notes issued by Authorised Deposit-Taking Institutions, the regulation will apply to all issuers.