NEWS

In May 2018, Treasury released draft legislation to implement the integrity measures directed at stapled structures, previously announced by the Government in March 2018. The draft legislation represents the first tranche of the Government’s integrity package, relating to the first four measures previously announced and directed at stapled structures. It is understood that draft legislation on the agricultural MIT changes will…

Amidst the startling revelations emanating from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (‘Royal Commission’) there are the occasional, less sensational disclosures worthy of further comment. One such disclosure arises from the witness statement of the Deputy Chair of ASIC, Mr Peter Kell, prepared in response to specific questions…

In March 2018, the Full Federal Court of Australia released its judgment in the case of Killarnee Civil & Concrete Contractors Pty Ltd, ruling that (among other things) trust assets should be applied first in paying employees and other statutory preferred creditors whilst trust assets could only go to trust creditors, not non-trust creditors. By way of…

In March 2018, the Australian Government released a package of policy measures intended to address taxation bias towards foreign investors under certain stapled structures. The measures are a follow up to a Consultation Paper prepared by the Treasurer in 2017, which first addressed the Government’s concerns regarding stapled structures. This bias comes about through the…

In early February, the Federal Court handed down its decision in the case of Resource Capital Fund IV LP v Commissioner of Taxation [2018] FCA 41. The case addresses key issues relating to Australia’s taxation rights on gains made by offshore Limited Partnerships on the disposal of Australian shares. This case is particularly relevant to offshore investors and Private Equity firms as…

On 24 January 2018, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) released their report on the vertically integrated business model amongst Australia’s largest banking and financial services institutions, AMP, ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac (the Report). In their Report, ASIC concludes that the vertically integrated business model “gives rise to an inherent conflict of interest”. ASIC looked at the ratio of ‘in-house products’ to ‘external products’ on the…

On 16 January 2018, AUSTRAC released proposed draft rules, following the enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2017.  These draft rules will directly affect Digital Currency Providers, by expanding the scope of the legislation to include regulation of digital currency exchange providers. In brief, this regulation will be in the form of mandatory registration and compliance obligations. Under…

In December 2017, the Government released exposure draft tax legislation for corporate collective investment vehicles. The exposure draft legislation (ED) follows the recommendations in a 2009 report which found that foreign investors were unfamiliar with Australian structures involving units trusts, disadvantaging the Australian market. The ED is intended to create a transparent tax regime in alignment with the existing regime…

Through updating their Q&A on the ASIC web-site ASIC informed us that on 21 December 2017 they updated certain aspects of ASIC Class Order [CO 14/1252] (Class Order) to extend the time period for super fund PDS and super fund and managed investment scheme Periodic Statements to comply with the Class Order. Before the December…

As a proud sponsor of AVCAL, we are pleased to be at the MCG amongst our partners including: Adamantem, Advent, Blackrock, Blue Sky, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Quadrant, Social Ventures Australia, Square Peg Capital and Vantage Asset Management.