The Commissioner of Taxation's 2009-10 Annual Report, for the financial year ended 30 June, 2010 (the 89th Report), has reported net cash collections of $253.2 billion which, while 4.3% lower than for 2008-2009, represented a $910 million increase in revenue collections over those initially forecast in the 2009-2010 budget. This was 0.4% above the 2009 budget forecast and 0.1% below the revised estimate from the 2010-2011 budget.

Source: Joint media release by ICAA, NIA, TIA and Taxpayers Australia, 18 October 2010

Four of Australia's leading professional tax and accounting bodies (The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, National Institute of Accountants, Taxation Institute of Australia and Taxpayers Australia), representing over 100,000 accountants and tax advisers, have united to call for sweeping reforms of the antiquated laws governing the taxation of trusts. The professional bodies believe the Tax Commissioner's technical interpretation of Div 7A that applies to unpaid present entitlements (UPEs) is not supportable and is at odds with the original policy intent.

Source: Senate Economics Legislation Committee Hansard, 21 October 2010 [proof copy, pp E62, E63, E76]

Senate estimates hearings have recently taken place covering, as they always do, a wide range of matters. These included the proposed Minerals Resource Rent Tax. At the hearings, Treasury officials indicated that they had previously received advice from the Commonwealth Solicitor General in relation to the then-proposed Resource Super Profits Tax (originally announced on 2 May, 2010) that...

Source: Treasurer's media release No 074, 28 October 2010

The Treasurer has announced that the government has released additional material underlying the Henry Tax System Review "to promote a constructive discussion in our community about tax reform".

The Tax Office has released the minutes of the 12 August 2010 meeting of the NTLG FBT Sub-committee. Issues discussed at the meeting included:

Source: Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting

The government has proposed an amendment to the FBTAA so that the current FBT exemption for fly-in/fly-out arrangements, which applies for work in Australia, will be extended and applied to Australian workers in similar situations overseas. The new exemption will cover Australian residents working in remote overseas areas who are employed under "fly-in/fly-out" arrangements, mainly miners working in remote areas of Asia and Africa.