Income Tax Point-in-Time Service Updates

The Income Tax Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the new amendments for tax information and task forces contained in the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No. 3) Regulation 2014 (No. 176 of 2014).

Regulation 176 of 2014

The Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No. 3) Regulation 2014 (Regulation) amends the Taxation Administration Regulations 1976 (TAR 1976)  to allow for the sharing of taxation information between the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and other agencies for the purposes of investigations being carried out by the Phoenix Taskforce and the Trusts Taskforce. This assists the taskforces in carrying out their substantive purposes.

The role of the Phoenix Taskforce is to identify, design and implement cross agency strategies to mitigate and deter fraudulent phoenix activity. Fraudulent phoenix activity involves the evasion of tax and other liabilities, such as employee entitlements, through the deliberate, systematic and sometimes cyclic liquidation of related corporate trading entities. This involves intentionally placing a  company into administration or liquidation to avoid payment of taxes, the superannuation guarantee or other employee entitlements. A new company is then created to carry on the same or similar business, typically with the same ownership. Fraudulent phoenix activity is a risk which has the potential to generate severe erosion of the revenue base and undermine business and community confidence.

The amendments made by Regulation 176 of 2014 have been updated in the Point-in-Time Income Tax Service current to 24 November 2014. (NB: Subscription required).

If you are not already a subscriber to this or other Point-in-Time Services then please contact us to find out more or to take a free trial.