Fossil fuel giant Shell Australia has partially won a challenge to a tax office decision denying deductions claimed over an acquisition the increased the company’s stake in Woodside Energy’s Browse Basin gas exploration joint venture project.
The federal government has cut the budget for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission by $62.7 million in tandem with the regulator’s corporate registry being shifted to the ATO, but a legal expert told Lawyerly the cut could also signal a movement away from the “why not litigate” approach adopted in the wake of the banking royal commission.
Tabcorp-owned Tatts Group has launched legal proceedings against the Australian Taxation Office seeking to set aside an “excessive” decision barring over $393 million in tax deductions for 2013 when the company was master agent of SA Lotteries.
The High Court has granted special leave in a test case by the Australian Taxation Office concerning the effectiveness of disclaimers by trust beneficiaries giving up entitlements to trust income and any associated tax obligations.
The Australian Taxation Office has told a judge it would be prepared to “give comfort” to PricewaterhouseCoopers that it will not prosecute the accounting giant for tax offences relating to documents at the centre of a court battle over privilege.
Hannover Life Re of Australasia has launch a courtroom challenge to a decision by the Australian Taxation Office which rejected $12 million in input tax credits it claimed from overheads and a distribution agreement entered into with Real Insurance.
A long standing stoush over staff expenses between Bechtel and the Australian Taxation Office has made its way to the Federal Court, with the engineering and construction firm challenging a decision that funds spent flying workers out to the Curtis Island LNG site were not tax deductible.
Construction company Clough Limited has appealed a ruling that found it cannot claim over $15 million paid to employees for cancellation of their shares and options as a tax deduction.
The Australian Taxation Office has successfully appealed a Federal Court decision finding it could not recover an R&D tax offset refund of around $2.3 million paid to Auctus Resources despite the payment being made by mistake and the mining company admitting it was not entitled to the money.
The High Court has ruled that the tax office was not obliged to refund money for tax surpluses mistakenly issued under the GST Act, in a long-running legal dispute between the Commissioner of Taxation and foreign currency exchange Travelex.