FBT: meal cards and work-related items;

employee share schemes: changes to method of making the ‘discount’ election and removal of double taxation; and

depreciation rate for in-house software.
Medicare levy surcharge
The Government has introduced a Bill into Parliament to increase the Medicare levy surcharge threshold for individuals from $50,000 to $100,000, and for families from $100,000 to $150,000.
The increase to the threshold will take effect from 1 July 2008.

Tax Law Changes
In May 2008, the Government introduced into Parliament a Bill to:

amend the tax laws in relation to shareholders’ and unit-holders’ rights in relation to call options and put options; and

restrict GST refunds for overpayments, and amend the review period of indirect taxes assessments.

Taxpayer Alerts
The Tax Office has issued two Taxpayer Alerts warning taxpayers of arrangements that are currently being examined:

Arrangements whereby a shareholder of a private company purports to make a repayment of a loan extended by the
    company via a round robin of endorse cheques.
    The Tax Office is concerned that these arrangements have been contrived to avoid the operation of the tax legislation
    which may deem a loan between a private company and its shareholders (or their associates) as an unfranked dividend.

Arrangements for the prepayment of service fees from a trading entity to an associate service entity.
    The Tax Office is concerned that these arrangements have been entered into with the dominant purpose of obtaining a
    tax deduction.

Private Company Loans
The Tax Office has released a Taxation Determination stating the essential information that a written loan agreement between
a private company and its shareholder (or their associate) must include:

the name of the parties;

the loan terms;

a statement that the parties have agreed to the terms; and

the date when the agreement was executed.
If a private company extends a loan to its shareholder (or their associate), the loan may be deemed as an unfranked dividend, which is assessable income to the shareholder (or their associate) in the year the loan arises.
However, if a loan agreement is in place, an exception applies.

Data Matching

Luxury Cars
The Tax Office will request and collect details of individuals or entities that, between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2007, have purchased or acquired motor vehicles valued at $57,009 or higher.
The data collected will be electronically matched with its data holdings to identify non-compliance with tax obligations.
Owner-builder licence registration
The Tax Office will acquire owner-builder licence registration information from the Victorian and NSW state governments.
This information will be electronically matched with its data holding to identify taxpayers who may not be meeting their tax obligations.

FBT Car Parking Threshold
The Tax Office has stated that the car parking threshold for the FBT year that commenced 1 April 2008 is $7.07.

Increase in Pension Thresholds
The assets test thresholds for pensions will increase from 1 July 2008.
Taxpayers who will benefit from the increase include those receiving the Age Pension, Carer payment, and Austudy.

Capital Improvement Threshold
The Tax Office has released the capital improvement threshold for the 2008-09 income year, which is $119,594.

HECS and SFSS Repayment
The Tax Office has released the HECS and SFSS repayment thresholds for the 2008-09 income year.
When a taxpayer’s repayment income is above $41,594, the taxpayer will be required to start repaying his or her HECS debt and/or SFSS debt.
The repayment amount is calculated by applying the relevant repayment rate that corresponds to the taxpayer’s income


MHM News

60 seconds with a Staff Member

Name: James Fock
Role at MHM Accountants: Accountant
Length of Time at MHM: 9 months
What is the best part of being an Accountant at MHM:Apart from being a fantastic office to
work in, there is always something to look forward to outside of work, including drinks and parties.
Everybody is so nice and helpful and the partners are very generous.
Favourite Food: Dad’s Beef Goulash(German) and Mum’s Chicken Adobo(Filipino)
Favourite TV Show: : Boston Legal
Nick Names: Focky and Jimmy, but more recently known as Striker
Hobbies: Sport, Music, Food, Poker and Snooker
How do you spend your weekends: Playing sport, night clubbing and women,(sometimes)
Best advice your Mother ever gave you: “Eat your vegetables” and “don’t forget to brush your teeth sonny boy”

 

For further information on current tax issues, MHM news and client profiles, please click the July 2008 - The Bottom Line in Publications section below.

Publications: The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line is a monthly bulletin produced by the MHM team for the benefit of clients. The bulletin aims to keep clients up-to-date with changes in tax legislation that may affect them and their business, as well as keep them informed of what the MHM team have been up to in the past month. The Bottom Line will be released on-line every month and will be available for download in Word (.doc) or Adobe PDF format. Bulletins for this financial year are available below:

July 2008: The Bottom Line size: 989KB
June 2008: The Bottom Line size: 460KB
April/May 2008: The Bottom Line size: 996KB
February 2008: The Bottom Line size: 472KB

(Left Click to View or Right Click to Download)

Archive Files

December 2007/January 2008: The Bottom Line size: 767KB
October 2007: The Bottom Line size: 552KB
September 2007: The Bottom Line size: 486KB
August 2007: The Bottom Line size: 464KB

(Left Click to View or Right Click to Download)