Tell it to the Tax Office: Administrative fixes

I wasn't sure where to raise this issue but I think there is a big flaw in job keeper payment and that is that it is being paid to children still in high school doing their HSC who live at home with mum and dad and may typically work only a couple of shifts a week. I know an example of one girl who works 3 hours a week in a coffee shop and is now getting $750 per week because she is over 18. I think to alleviate the problem full time high school students should not be eligible even if they're 18. I do not think that job keeper should be extended to high school students with a casual job.

There is currently little guidance provided to the mining industry on Research and Development (R&D) and its interactions with the tax system. Propose that the ATO provide consistent levels of R&D guidance/advice across all industries in order to provide clarity and certainty.

Update Section 45B guidance

The ATO should consider reviewing the usefulness and relevancy of its advice and guidance in respect of schemes to provide certain benefits (section 45B of the ITAA 1936) and update it as required.

Need further guidance from the ATO with respect to Employee Share Schemes (ESS) and whether interests in certain common kinds of foreign vehicles (such as a limited liability company) qualify as 'shares' or 'ordinary shares' under the ESS rules, in particular, subsections 83A-10(1) and 83A-45(2) of the ITAA 1997.

For large withholders, the total salary and wages amount recorded at label W1 on a Business Activity Statement (BAS) is not used for the purposes of any calculations within the BAS. However, conducting the calculations required in order to complete this label can be administratively burdensome. Propose that the requirement to complete this label be removed for large withholders.

Suggest the ATO provide further guidance on its current position regarding forgiveness of Div 7A loans owed by deceased estates and the consequences of not meeting minimum repayments, especially where the deceased is a former shareholder and the estate does not have shares in the company

There are several common reasons why a tax agent would call the tax office, if some of these reasons can be made available online it would save time for both the tax agent and ATO staff.

Significant global entities are required to prepare and submit a Country by Country ("CbC") report with the ATO pursuant to Sub-division 815-E unless an exemption is granted by the ATO. The ATO has released exemption guidance which states that an exemption is not automatially provided to entities that do not need to lodge an IDS (i.e entites that do not have cross border transactions > $2m). Instead, entities need to submit an exemption request which will be considered by the ATO.

The recent Federal Court case on the GST treatment of Ubers decided to adopt a common sense definition of taxi and thus have the same GST rules apply to taxi and Uber travel. However the FBT law defines a taxi as a "motor vehicle that is licensed to operate as a taxi". It would seem therefore on a literal reading of the FBT law, that the exemption given to certain taxi related travel given to employees does not apply if your staff catch an Uber rather than taxi as Ubers aren't licensed to operate as a taxi.

Unpaid SGL