Tax Planning

Illegal tax saving strategies damage the fabric of society and Government policy is clearly to minimise or eliminate them. If tax avoidance is left unchecked, the perception of unfairness has the potential to undermine the voluntary ethic in the broader tax system.  Every accounting practice in Australia will have at least a couple of clients…

As the well-known Australian billionaire media magnate Kerry Francis Packer once said in reference to the Australian government, ‘Now of course I am minimising my tax and if anybody in this country doesn’t minimise their tax they want their heads read because as a government I can tell you you’re not spending it that well…

Income tax was first implemented in Great Britain by William Pitt the Younger in his budget of December 1798 to pay for weapons and equipment in preparation for the Napoleonic Wars. Pitt’s new graduated (progressive) income tax began at a levy of 2 old pence in the pound (1/120) on incomes over £60 (£5,696 as…

The Commonwealth Treasury’s 2016 Tax Expenditures Statement (published in January 2017) shows Australia’s ten most expensive tax breaks are: Main residence exemption from CGT: $61.5 billion. Concessional taxation of superannuation earnings $16.9 billion. Concessional taxation of superannuation contributions $16.9 billion. CGT discount for individuals and trusts $9.6 billion. GST exemption for fresh food $6.9 billion.…

Talk to anyone in the accounting industry and it’s very apparent that compliance fees are falling (and will continue to fall year on year). Rob Nixon in his book Remaining Relevant, has predicted that compliance prices will plummet by 50% or more within 5 years. His predictions may turn out to be very conservative as…

Martha Helen Stewart (c1941) is an American businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia she has gained success (a net worth of US$638 million) through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, merchandising, and e-commerce. She has written numerous bestselling books, is the publisher of the Martha Stewart Living…

An intellectual property box regime is a special tax regime for intellectual property revenues. It is also known as a patent box, innovation box or IP box and was first introduced in 2000 by the Irish as a reduced rate of tax on revenue from IP licensing or the transfer of qualified IP. In Europe…

The US is the world’s largest economy with a gross national product (the value of all goods and services produced) of $18.5 trillion. The US accounts for a massive 24.5% of the world economy. The election of Donald Trump as President of the US will bring many changes. Probably none more so than his promise…

The double Irish tax strategy has been used since the late 1980s by some multinational corporations (including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook) to lower their corporate tax liability. The strategy uses payments between related entities in a corporate structure to move income from a higher-tax country to a lower or no tax jurisdiction. It relies…

The Singapore Sling is a gin-based cocktail from Singapore that was developed in 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon, a Hainanese bartender working at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, Singapore. It was initially called the gin sling – a sling was originally an American drink composed of spirit and water, sweetened and flavored. BHP Billiton…