Income Tax Point-in-Time Service Updates

The Income Tax Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the Treasury Laws Amendment (Income Tax Consolidation Integrity) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 14 of 2018), the Treasury Laws Amendment (Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 15 of 2018), the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Veteran-centric Reforms No. 1) Act 2018 (Act 17 of 2018), the Treasury Laws Amendment (2018 Measures No. 1) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 23 of 2018), the Intelligence Services Amendment (Establishment of the Australian Signals Directorate) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 25 of 2018) and the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Welfare Reform) Act 2018 (Act 26 of 2018).

Act 14 of 2018

This Act amends the ITAA 1997 to improve the integrity and operation of the consolidation regime by implementing the following measures:

• the deductible liabilities measure, which will remove a double benefit that can arise in respect of certain liabilities held by an entity that joins a consolidated group;
• the deferred tax liabilities measure, which will simplify the operation of the entry and exit tax cost setting rules by ensuring that deferred tax liabilities are disregarded;
• the securitised assets measure, which will remove anomalies that arise when an entity joins or leaves a consolidated group where the entity has securitised an asset;
• the churning measure, which will switch off the entry tax cost setting rules for a joining entity where a capital gain or capital loss made by a foreign resident owner when it ceases to hold membership interests in the joining entity is disregarded in certain circumstances;
• the TOFA measure, which will clarify the operation of the TOFA provisions when an intra-group asset or liability that is, or is part of, a Division 230 financial arrangement emerges from a consolidated group because a subsidiary member leaves the group; and
• the value shifting measure, which will remove anomalies that arise when an entity leaves a consolidated group holding an asset that corresponds to a liability owed to it by the old group because the value of the asset taken into account for tax cost setting purposes is not always appropriate.

Act 15 of 2018

This Act amends the tax law to replace the former Exploration Development Incentive (EDI) with the Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI). Like the EDI, the JMEI provides a tax incentive to invest in small minerals exploration companies undertaking greenfields minerals exploration in Australia. Australian resident investors of these companies receive a tax incentive where the companies choose to give up a portion of their tax losses relating to their exploration expenditure in an income year.
Unlike the EDI, under the JMEI:

• eligibility for the incentive is limited to investors that purchase newly issued shares; and
• the incentive is allocated between eligible exploration companies on a first come, first served process (subject to integrity requirements).

Act 17 of 2018

This Act makes various amendments to law relating to veterans’ affairs and military rehabilitation and compensation, and for related purposes.

The amendments made by Schedule 1 create a new legislative scheme to provide additional support for current and former members and the families of current and former members, including deceased members, of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The amendments provide additional childcare arrangements, counselling, household services and attendant care for prescribed current and former ADF members.

The amendments in Schedule 2 create the Veteran Payment. Veteran Payment is a form of interim income support available to veterans to bridge the gap between lodging a claim for a mental health injury and the claim being determined. This payment is designed to provide immediate short-term financial assistance to vulnerable people who may be experiencing financial difficulty.

The amendments made by Schedule 3 amend the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA) and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA) to create a new legislative scheme to provide a new pilot program to improve the mental health support available to veterans in rural and regional areas.

The amendments made by Schedule 4 amend the existing provisions relating to compensation for household and attendant care services where an Australian Defence Force (ADF) member sustains a catastrophic injury or disease under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004(MRCA).

Schedule 5 amends the relevant provisions within Division 2 of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986(VEA) that relates to a claim for a qualifying service determination. 

The amendments made by Schedule 6, Part 1 amend the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 (DRCA) to make technical amendments, and the amendments made by Part 2, reinsert section 43 into the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988(SRCA) to ensure a peacekeeper will not experience any disadvantage. 

The amendments made by Schedule 7 are consequential amendments related to the Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Omnibus) Act 2017.

The amendments made by Schedule 8 Item 1 amend the existing provisions related to eligibility for treatment under the Australian Participants in British Commonwealth Occupation Force (Treatment) Act 2006.

Act 23 of 2018

Schedule 1 to this Act makes a number of regulatory improvements to Treasury portfolio laws. The regulatory improvements include:

• amending the superannuation laws to enable the Commissioner to pay certain superannuation amounts directly to individuals with a terminal medical condition;
• amending the Corporations Act 2001 to modify the notification and reporting obligations applying to certain corporations that have property in receivership or property in respect of which a controller is acting; and
• repealing several inoperative Acts as well as amending the taxation law to remove a number of inoperative or spent provisions.

Schedule 2 to this Act amends the ITAA 1997, the SLAA 2012 and the TLAA 2010 to extend the tax relief for merging superannuation funds until 1 July 2020.

Schedule 3 to this Act amends the APRA Act to enable the Government to recover the ongoing cost of the governance of the superannuation transaction network from the superannuation supervisory levy.

Schedule 4 to this Act transfers the regulator role for early release of superannuation benefits on compassionate grounds from the Chief Executive Medicare (Department of Human Services) to the Commissioner of Taxation (Australian Taxation Office). 

Schedule 5 to this Act amends the TAA 1953, ITAA 1997 and the GST Act to require purchasers of new residential premises and new subdivisions of potential residential land to make a payment of part of the purchase price to the ATO.

Act 25 of 2018

The Act implements the recommendations of the 2017 Independent Intelligence Review to establish the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) as an independent statutory agency within the Defence portfolio reporting directly to the Minister for Defence, as endorsed by Government. The Act also includes a number of other related amendments following the establishment of ASD.  

Act 26 of 2018 

An Act to amend the law relating to family assistance, social security, paid parental leave and student assistance, and for related purposes.

The Act introduces a new, single JobSeeker Payment, which will replace or consolidate seven existing payments in order to simplify the working age payment system. 

The Act also sees a streamlining of administrative processes and the introduction of a new targeted compliance framework which will better identify and support vulnerable people and ensure that wilfully noncompliant jobseekers face appropriate penalties.

The amendments made by these Acts have been updated in the Point-in-Time Income Tax Service current to 21 May 2018. (NB: Subscription required).

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