Greenwoods and Freehills Weekly Tax Highlights - Week Ended 13.3.09

ATO Documents

Released 11.3.09

Taxation Determinations
TD 2009/3: Income tax: employee share schemes: for the purpose of subsection 139CD(6) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, does a taxpayer become the holder of a beneficial interest in shares merely by acquiring a contractual right to obtain shares in a company (the particular, individual shares not being ascertained at the time)?
TD 2009/4: Income tax: in accounting for a Dividend Re-investment Plan, can a company taint its share capital account for the purposes of Division 197 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997?
Class Ruling
CR 2009/14: Income tax: Goldman Sachs JBWere Capital Markets Limited; Goldman Sachs JBWere Group Holdings Pty Limited - Goldman Sachs JBWere Redeemable Capital Securities employers 
Product Ruling
PR 2009/9: Income tax: Macquarie Almond Investment 2009 - Early Growers (to 15 June 2009)
Fuel Tax Determination
FTD 2009/1: Fuel tax: what is the meaning of 'use' for the purposes of section 41-5 of the Fuel Tax Act 2006?

Released 13.3.09

Interpretative Decision
ATO ID 2009/12: Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme: off-road credit - diesel fuel used in construction of premises
Withdrawn Interpretative Decisions
ATO ID 2005/219: Loan Fringe Benefits: otherwise deductible rule - joint loans and the National Australia Bank decision
ATO ID 2006/280: Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme: Off-road credit - diesel fuel used in the construction of a premises

The Tax Agent Services Bill 2008 passed through the Senate without amendment on the 12.3.09 on and now awaits Royal Assent. 

Released 13.3 09

The Assistant Treasurer has released the Exposure Draft: Tax Laws Amendment (Confidentiality of Taxpayer Information) Bill 2009 and Explanatory Material. The Exposure Draft Bill proposes to consolidate, into a single comprehensive framework, taxation secrecy and disclosure provisions that are currently found across some 18 taxation law acts.

Announced 10.3.09

The Inspector-General of Taxation has announced a new program of reviews into tax administration. The Reviews which will be pursued at present are:

Review into the implications of delayed or changed ATO advice on significant issues.
Review of the private rulings system. Issues such as productivity, timeliness and the system's future integrity will be considered.
Review into the ATO's administration of the Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC). The review aims to identify the level of employer non-compliance and assess how the ATO is dealing with the problem.
Review into the ATO's practices for finalising large company audits.
Review into the ATO's compliance focus on SMEs. This review will identify whether the ATO's risk-management analysis justifies its focus on the top end SME sector and if its approaches are reasonable, efficient and cost effective.
Review into the efficiency of the ATO's compliance and regulatory approaches to Self Managed Super Funds (SMSFs).
Follow-up review into the ATO's implementation of agreed Inspector-General of Taxation recommendations.