Taxation Law: Starting a New Business, Sale of Assets, and General Deductions

This article discusses taxation law related to starting a new business, sale of assets, and general deductions. It covers the tests for ascertaining if a company is an Australian resident for tax purposes, exemptions from capital gains tax, and general deductions permissible under s. 8-1 ITAA 1997. The article also includes references to relevant cases and legislation.

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Part 1- Starting a new business
Section 6(1) ITAA 1936 highlights the three main tests for ascertaining if the underlying
company is an Australian resident for tax purposes or not. These tests are mentioned as
follows (Woellner, 2014).
Test 1: The place of incorporation of company ought to be Australia and not any foreign
location.
Test 2: The company must have some business in Australia and the control of the voting
power should be with Australian residents only.
Test 3: The company must have some business in Australia and also, the central location of
key management must be within Australia only.
For the given company and the given case facts, the above tests are applied.
Test 1: The given company’s place of incorporation is Singapore and hence the incorporation
test is not passed.
Test 2: The voting rights in the company are equally divided amongst the four directors and
only one of these (i.e. Elwood) is an Australian resident. Hence, 75% or majority of voting
rights are with foreign residents. Hence, the voting control test is not passed.
Test 3: It is apparent that the business of the company has to do with Australia since it
concerns with movement of goods from Australia to Africa. However, in relation to the
central control, when the directors are located in different geographical locations, then the
place of meeting of directors is the place of central control. This is Singapore in this case
which implies that management control is not located in Australia. Also, the position of
managing director is not with Elwood on a permanent basis.
The conclusion from the above discussion is that the company is a foreign tax resident.
Part 2- Sale of Assets

1) Car is exempt from Capital Gains tax (s. 204-430 ITAA 1997) and thereby no CGT on the
gains/ loss derived from car sale (Woellner, 2014). The proceeds from the sale of capital
assets would be capital and hence non-assessable. No reporting on tax returns.
2) A pre-CGT asset is one which has been purchased before September 20, 1985 and such
assets are exempt from CGT purview (s. 149-10 ITAA 1997). The land block is a pre-CGT
asset and hence exempt from CGT implications (Sadiq et. al., 2016). The proceeds from the
sale of capital assets would be capital and hence non-assessable. No reporting on tax returns.
3) The sale of shares amounts to disposal of capital assets in accordance with s, 104-5 ITAA
1997. Hence, capital gain can be computed by subtracting the cost base from the sales
proceeds (CCH, 2013).
Shares have been purchased @ $ 80,000
Shares have been disposed @ $ 175,000
Hence, resultant capital gains = 175000 -80000 = $ 95,000
The above gains are long term using to holding period being in excess of a year and thereby
50% discount is applicable in accordance with ss.115-25(1) ITAA 1997.
Hence capital gains on which CGT would be applicable = (50/100)*95000 which amounts to
$ 47,500.
4) Antique is a capital asset which has been disposal leading to event A1 as per s. 104-5
(Gilders et. al., 2016).
Capital losses related to antique sale = 15000-5000 = $ 10,000
The above loss can either be used to balance any derived capital gains on antique or would be
carried ahead to the subsequent year.
5) Jewellery is a capital asset which is also used for personal purposes and hence would an
item of personal use. For such items, ss.108-20(1) ITAA 1997 states that in the event of any
capital losses, these ought to be ignored (Barkoczy, 2017). Clearly, the selling price of
jewellery is lower than the buying price owing to which a capital loss arises which as per
above discussion is ignored. Hence no impact on tax returns.

6) The sale of shares amounts to disposal of capital assets in accordance with s, 104-5 ITAA
1997. Hence, capital gain can be computed by subtracting the cost base from the sales
proceeds (Gilders et. al., 2016).
Shares have been purchased @ $ 41,500
Shares have been disposed @ $ 45,000
Hence, resultant capital gains = 45000 -41500 = $ 3,500
The above gains are long term using to holding period being in excess of a year and thereby
50% discount is applicable in accordance with ss.115-25(1) ITAA 1997 (Krever, 2016).
Hence capital gains on which CGT would be applicable = (50/100)*3500 which amounts to $
1,750.
7) Section 110-25 ITAA 1997 highlights the various key elements of the cost base of an
asset. One of these is the ownership costs. In case of quota, ownership costs would be in the
form of renewal cost (Deutsch et. al., 2016).
Hence, Quota (Cost base) = Purchase Cost + Renewal Cost = 25000 + 5000 = $ 30,000
Quota sale proceeds = $ 50,000
Thus, capital gains on sale of quota would be 50000-30000 which would amount to $ 20,000.
The above gains are long term using to holding period being in excess of a year and thereby
50% discount is applicable in accordance with ss.115-25(1) ITAA 1997 (CCH, 2013).
Hence, capital gains on which CGT is applicable is (50/100) *20,000 which would amount to
$ 10,000.
Part 3: General Deductions
General deduction is permissible under s. 8-1 ITAA 1997. A positive limb which ought to be
satisfied is that the expense or outgoing has to be directly and sufficiently linked to assessable

income obtained. A negative limb which ought to be avoided is that the expenditure must not
be capital but revenue (Deutsch et. al., 2016).
Interest –Section 8-1 provides general deduction for interest if the underlying capital is
deployed for assessable income production. Elwood has assumed loan only when government
has granted permission for import and also has bought the showroom before the arrival of
cars from Fiji. Besides, with the change in government policy it may happen that assessable
income is reduced but it would be produced and hence the interest on underlying investment
would be deductible for tax purposes (Barkoczy, 2017).
Advertisement Campaign – The key factor is to determine if the underlying expenditure on
the campaign is revenue or capital in nature. TO ascertain the same, a test has been
highlighted in the verdict of the Sun Newspapers Ltd and Associated Newspapers Ltd v.
Federal Commissioner of Taxation (1938) 61 CLR 33. Here, it was indicated that the
expenditure type would be capital if the underlying benefit arising from the expenditure
would be enduring or lasting over multiple tax years (Krever, 2016). In the given case, if the
campaign is successful in lifting the ban from Fiji car imports then it would lead to higher
assessable income production for Etwood and this is not limited to current year but would be
beneficial in an enduring manner. Hence, the expenditure on advertisement campaign is
capital which leads to non-availability of general deduction (Sadiq et. al., 2016).

References
Barkoczy, S. (2017) Foundation of Taxation Law 2017. 9th ed. Sydney: Oxford University
Press.
CCH (2013), Australian Master Tax Guide 2013, 51st ed., Sydney: Wolters Kluwer.
Deutsch, R., Freizer, M., Fullerton, I., Hanley, P., and Snape, T. (2016) Australian tax
handbook. 8th ed. Pymont: Thomson Reuters.
Gilders, F., Taylor, J., Walpole, M., Burton, M. and Ciro, T. (2016) Understanding taxation
law 2016. 9th ed. Sydney: LexisNexis/Butterworths.
Krever, R. (2016) Australian Taxation Law Cases 2017. 2nd ed. Brisbane: THOMSON
LAWBOOK Company.
Sadiq, K, Coleman, C, Hanegbi, R, Jogarajan, S, Krever, R, Obst, W and Ting, A
(2016) , Principles of Taxation Law 2016, 8th ed., Pymont: Thomson Reuters
Woellner, R (2014), Australian taxation law 2014 7th ed. North Ryde: CCH Australia