DP O’Keefe Macquarie Law is a legal office in Dubbo NSW Australia.
Dan O’Keefe is an experienced solicitor, accredited business law specialist, mediator and notary public.
Providing practical, cost-effective & confidential advice.
Come to us for a high level of service in a friendly & personal manner.
Law full news items
(Use Twitter or Facebook to watch out for our news items that might be of interest to you)Employees can recover unpaid entitlements directly from directors
"Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), unpaid employee entitlements can be recovered from the employer and, in appropriate cases, from a director or other knowing participant. A director or other knowing participant will be liable if they were 'involved' in the relevant contraventions in the sense required by s 550 of the Act."
"The recent Federal Circuit Court decision in CFMEU v RGN Mining Services Pty Ltd [2017] FCCA 1546 provides an example of the recovery of unpaid entitlements from an individual director where the corporate employer was in liquidation. In that case the director was ordered to pay not only unpaid award and agreement entitlements, but also contractual entitlements not paid by the employer."
Selling real estate for $750,000 or more?
Don't forget Foreign Residents Withholding Tax (FRWT)
From 1 July 2017 Australian residents selling real estate with a market value of $750,000 or more need to apply for a clearance certificate from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to ensure that an amount is not withheld from the sale proceeds. Where a clearance certificate is not provided by the vendor the purchaser must withhold 12.5% of the sale price on settlement and pay it to the ATO.
When this measure was introduced in July 2016 it only applied to sales for $2m and above. With the reduced threshold many more sales are now affected.
(ATO Foreign residents withholding tax factsheet)
(Online application for clearance certificate for Australian residents)
Over the last 40 years, what has had the biggest impact? CGT, GST or SGL?
"When reflecting on the last 40 years, it occurs to me that there have been four major tax related reforms. In no particular order, these are:
- The introduction of capital gains tax in 1985;
- The introduction of imputation for corporate entities in 1987;
- The introduction of goods and services tax in 2000; and
- The introduction of a compulsory form of superannuation in 1992.
Each of these four measures were critically important and have had a long term and enduring impact on the Australian economy in the ensuing years. If, however one were to select one of these four measures as having perhaps the greatest impact, compulsory superannuation is a standout in that it has been the catalyst for the creation of an investment asset pool in excess of $2.3 trillion as at 30 June 2017.
Where that $2.3 trillion would have gone in the absence of superannuation over the last 25 years is an interesting question to speculate on, but there is no doubt that wherever it may have gone, it would have resulted in a significantly lesser pile of investment assets which Australians can utilise in their retirement years."
(Bob Deutsch, Senior Tax Counsele's Report, CTA TaxVine, The Tax Institute Newsletter 32 - 25 Aug 2017)
