MYEFO Shows Cost Of Disputes With ATO At $5.1b

The value of tax disputes, including court cases between taxpayers and the Australian Taxation Office, has reached $5.1 billion. The latest figures in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) show that the "estimated aggregate value of tax in dispute as at October 31 2014, for which a provision has not been made, is $5.1 billion". This figure is up from $4.6 billion in disputes reported in the May budget, but down from $7 billion reported in the MYEFO papers from a year ago. The ATO has mounted some big cases against multinationals...

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Australian Equities Market

In Australia, no economic data is released. In the US, CPI data and the FOMC rates decision is handed down. OVERNIGHT MARKETS US Equities US sharemarkets fell sharply in the last hour of trade on Tuesday. A mild rebound in the oil price supported energy shares. The S&P energy sector outperformed rising by 2.4% before closing up 0.6%. Investors also waited on the US Federal Reserve ahead of the FOMC rates decision which is released tomorrow. At the close of trade, the Dow Jones was down by 110 points or 0.6%. The S&P 500 index...

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More Transparency In Australian Business Taxation System

More transparency is expected in the Australian tax system now. The government is planning to make the process more flexible and convenient, so that key corporate regulators can have access to authentic information. This move will help in minimising cases of corporate tax cheats. It will help in encouraging organisations to pay their fair share of tax. According to Mr. Bradbury, the government is looking for possible ways to maintain a good flow of taxation information to and fro taxation office and other relevant corporate regulators. Some of...

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Hockey Chases Multinational Tax Dodgers

Australian tax officials have been embedded in the offices of 10 multinationals as the federal government tries to capture as much as $3 billion in dodged revenue each year. Treasurer Joe Hockey says 60 new ATO staff have been employed as the government cracks down on profit shifting. He's also in talks with the British government on its announcement that it's introducing a 25 per cent so-called "Google tax" for multinationals that avoid local tax and he has written to the European Commission supporting initiatives out of Germany and other...

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How GST works for Any Company in Australia

Australian Companies are required by taxation laws to collect and submit GST into the Australian Tax Office. Goods and Services Tax (GST) is 10% of Gross Invoice value levied on all types of goods and services sold subject to some exceptions. Any company can claim for GST credits, if it has submitted GST for any services or goods which are bought for business purpose. If the same goods or services are to be used fully or partially for personal...

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Double Tax Agreements Impede Google Tax

Without seeing the detail of the so-called “Google tax”, as a former assistant commissioner of taxation in the international area of the Australian Taxation Office, it appears to me there is one possibly insurmountable problem, Australia’s double tax agreement with Singapore (“Treasurer poised to impose ‘Google tax’”, AFR, December 9.)Under that treaty (and all Australia’s tax treaties) Singapore has taxing rights over the income of its resident companies. As a company incorporated there, Google Singapore is subject to income tax in Singapore...

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Consumer Sentiment Hits 3 Year Low: WBC

Australian consumers are the gloomiest they have been in three years. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute measure of sentiment fell by 5.7 per cent in December. The index reading of 91.1 points was the lowest score since August 2011. Westpac’s chief economist, Bill Evans, said it was a very disturbing result. "The index is now at its lowest level since August 2011 when it briefly fell below 90," Mr Evans said. "Prior to that you have to go all the way back May 2009 to see a period when the Index printed consistently below today’s level." "Respondents...

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GDP: Australia Enters Income Recession, Dollar Dives As Economy Stalls

The Australian dollar plummeted to fresh 4½-year lows on Wednesday as the country entered a technical income recession and gross domestic product expanded just 0.3 per cent in the September quarter. At midday, the Aussie was trading at US84.07¢, having earlier dropped about half a US cent to US83.92¢. The sharp decline reflected market surprise at the weakness of Wednesday's national accounts.  The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the value of goods and services produced in the quarter expanded 0.3 per cent in seasonally-adjusted...

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ExyFlix Fights Back Against The Australia Tax

Australians are all too used to paying a premium for movies downloaded with iTunes or Google, and one local retailer has had enough.Online entertainment provider EzyFlix.tv, which sells new release movies individually online, has launched a loss leading Christmas offer, selling movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Transformers Age of Extinction for $16.99.This represents a saving of up to 33 per cent compared with iTunes and Google Play.Craig White, CEO of Access Digital Entertainment, the company behind EzyFlix.tv, told Business Spectator...

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Elite Tax office Team Targets Crime Gangs

THEY are the new "Untouchables", hitting modern-day Al Capones not with guns but multi-million-dollar tax bills. Just like Eliot Ness and his fearless squad from the 1920s Prohibition era in the US, Tax Commissioner Michael d'Ascenzo is believed to be the driving force behind an elite team of 100 hand-picked enforcers from the Australian Tax Office taking on organised crime. The ATO is on the way to taking the profit out of crime - targeting bikie gangs, drug importers and other crime cartels. Its own statistics reveal it has confiscated...

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Australia Needs Higher Taxes, Not Spending Cuts

The federal budget balance is expected to deteriorate. The reasons are numerous but, in a lengthy statement, the government sums it up in terms of two key factors. These are: the softer economic outlook; and unresolved issues inherited from the former government.The economy is going through a transition. A decline in resources investment will be offset by a recovery in the non-resources sector. It seems the decline in resources investment may be sharper than previously forecast while the recovery in the non-resources sector may be more gradual.Thus,...

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Australian Tax Industry Calls For Voluntary Bitcoin Register

Australian taxation professionals' association The Tax Institute has proposed the establishment of a voluntary bitcoin register on which individuals and companies could register a bitcoin public address, with the aim of de-anonymising ownership of the digital currency in Australia.The Tax Institute suggested the move in its submission to the Senate Economics References Committee inquiry into an appropriate framework for digital currencies in Australia."This register would assist in proving that the entity owns the bitcoin held at those addresses,"...

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Building Approvals Jump 11.4 Per Cent For October

APPROVALS for the construction of new homes rose 11.4 per cent across Australia in October, official figures show. Local councils approved the construction of 17,062 new homes, including houses, townhouses and apartments in multi-unit buildings, in October. The stronger-than-expected building approvals figures gave the Australian dollar a boost. The local currency hit US85.01c as the data was released at 11:30am (AEDT), up from US84.88c just before. Over the 12 months to October, building approvals were up 2.5 per cent, the Australian Bureau...

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Using Mytax To Lodge Tax Returns

The ATO has reminded taxpayers who have missed the lodgment deadline that it is not too late to take advantage of the myTax service. It said more than one million people have used myTax to lodge their tax returns and that it has received positive feedback from users.ATO Website Changes: Users May Need To Update BookmarksThe ATO is progressively reviewing all informationon its website to make information easier to find and understand, with improved menus and examples where required.The ATO advises that as changes are made, users may need to replace...

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