TaxBanter Tax Workshop Bunbury/Busselton- 2024

The tax professional & ethical obligations

With verifiable ethics training a requirement of some professional associations, this session examines what it means to be a professional and the source of the ethical standards, specifically looking at:

• When an accountant risks compromising the duty of acting honestly and with integrity
• Why a tax agent’s failing to attend to their own taxation affairs is viewed as a breach of professional conduct
• How a tax agent who has always acted for a couple can manage a conflict of interest when dealing with the taxation affairs of one of them after the couple divorces
• Why an accountant cannot act as an auditor of their own SMSF

Grouping for aggregated turnover purposes

A practical, case study-based examination of the applicable concepts and grouping rules for working out aggregated turnover, which is relevant to a number of tax concessions, including:

• The R&D tax incentive
• Small business concessions
• Primary producer concessions

All TaxBanter tax training qualifies as eligible CPE/CPD hours.

CPD/CPE: 4 hours

Employee/independent contractor distinction, clarified

A case study approach exploring the practical consequences of recent Court decisions clarifying the distinction between an employee and independent contractor. In this session, we’ll consider: 

• What’s changed and what it means for many employees who are not on long term contracts
• When a worker is not an employee under the common law meaning of the term, but is deemed to be an employee 
• The ATO’s compliance approach to classifying workers as employees or independent contractors
• The employer’s risk misclassifying the worker under the Superannuation Guarantee (administration) Act 1992

Trust streaming revisited 

A case study illustrating how the proportionate approach under s. 97(1)(a) of the ITAA 1936 operates:

• On the wording of the trustee resolution making a beneficiary presently entitled to trust income
• When the ATO increases the net income of a trust
• When the trustee resolution allocates specific types of income to particular beneficiaries.

All TaxBanter tax training qualifies as eligible CPE/CPD hours.

CPD/CPE: 4 hours

Rental properties

The ATO’s six data matching programs will provide the Commissioner with information about rental properties that is expected to lead to collection of extra tax to fill the $1.3 billion rental tax gap.

In this session, we’ll cover the key contributors to the rental tax gap, such as incorrect reporting of income and expenses including interest expenses, insurance premiums, claim payouts, repairs costs and capital works deductions. We will also review:

• The tax implications of refinancing, offset accounts and redraw facilities
• Deducibility of holding costs 
• Vacant land rules
• Capital works v capital allowances v repairs deductions
• Second hand assets — depreciation and how rules interact with CGT on sale
• When a property is available for rent and its relevance
• Travel expenses

Work-related expenses 

The ATO continues to focus its compliance activity on work-related expense claims. We focus on the rules and their application to the myriad of expenses that clients think are work-related and deductible. We revisit this topic with the benefit of some recent court decisions in readiness for preparing individual income tax returns for 2024.

All TaxBanter tax training qualifies as eligible CPE/CPD hours.

• CPD/CPE: 4 hours

Estate planning: Planning for a better tax outcome

Asset protection (and tax) is foremost when considering strategies for accumulating and holding assets. 

Planning for how those assets are to be transferred to the next generation requires consideration, not only of likely tax consequences, but also of strategies to guard against disputes. 

This session will consider the tax implications of various estate planning strategies for dealing with:

• The family home / holiday house
• Superannuation interests
• Loans to family members
• Bequests of valuable assets
• Control of the family business

Catching up with the residency rules

Proposals to change the tax residency rules have been under consideration for several years, even as the Courts have clarified the application of our existing rules. In this session, we’ll examine:

• The current residency rules for individuals and entities
• The proposed changes to the residency rules for individuals and entities
• How Australia's double tax agreements (DTAs) interact with the residency rules in the Tax Act

All TaxBanter tax training qualifies as eligible CPE/CPD hours.

CPD/CPE: 4 hours