The Australian Treasury recently reviewed the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and is seeking feedback from businesses and consumers to have their say on proposed reforms to clarify, simplify and modernise the consumer guarantee framework in the ACL.
Read MoreThe Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA) has been in effect for over 6 years, yet many businesses are still unaware of the existence and the wide-reaching impact of the PPSA.
Read MoreYou will need to take extra care to safeguard the unauthorised access, loss or disclosure of personal information.
On 22 February 2018, the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017 (Cth) will take effect to introduce a new notifiable data breach scheme (NDB Scheme).
Read MoreYou now need to take extra care to safeguard the unauthorised disclosure of a client's tax file number (TFN).
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It would be prudent to recommend to your clients that their "fixed" trusts and unit trusts be reviewed having regard to recent developments.
On 13 September 2017, the ATO issued a finalised Guideline (PCG 2016/16) which sets out the circumstances when the Commissioner will exercise his discretion to treat a trust as a fixed trust.
Read MoreOn 19 May 2017, the Personal Property Securities Amendment (PPS Leases) Act 2017 (Cth) (Amendment Act) received Royal Assent and is now effective. The Amendment Act has changed the definition of a "PPS Lease" (PPS Lease) under the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA).
Read MoreMost accountants and lawyers are aware of the duty implications of changing a trustee of a trust that holds dutiable property in New South Wales – as long as any new trustee or continuing trustee cannot benefit under the trust, the duty payable on a transfer of dutiable property to the new trustee or continuing trustee will only be $50.
Read MoreAfter the introduction of land tax and duty surcharges for foreign persons acquiring or holding residential land in NSW, it was thought that discretionary and certain hybrid trust deeds needed to be amended by no later than 31 December 2016 to ensure that the surcharges would not be imposed on those trusts.
Read MoreAn update on on our previous article: 60 million reasons to perfect your security interest
The Full Court of the Supreme Court of NSW has rejected an appeal against the decision in Forge Group Power Pty Limited (in liquidation) (receivers and managers appointed) v General Electric International Inc NSWSC 52 (11 February 2016).
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