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Integrity measures covering income tax deductions for payments, including salary, to relatives

Involved “associate” issues come up frequently on this blog. For instance:

In this piece I am looking at some core associate rules concerning income tax deductions: how the Income Tax Assessment Acts (ITAA) can restrict income tax deductions for payments, including salary and wages, where the person in receipt is a relative or associate.

Example – mischief to which s26-35 of the ITAA 1997 is directed

Let us say X owns a business which employs X’s son Y and daughter-in-law Z. The business is profitable and X pays tax on income from the business at a high marginal rate. Y and Z only have assessable income from their salary from working in the business and both pay income tax at a lower rate than X. To give Y and Z a helping hand and so X, Y and Z pay less income tax overall X pays Y and Z overly generous salaries taking into account the age, experience, extent and profitability of the work that Y and Z do in the business.

How s26-35 applies

Section 26-35, which operates together with section 65 of the ITAA 1936, to cover off on payments to individuals including payments routed through partnerships, trusts and companies, reduces the deduction for salary and wages X is allowed to the amount the Commissioner of Taxation (Commissioner) considers reasonable based on the nature of the duties performed by, the hours worked by and the total remuneration of the relative. The excess is not deductible.

The section is not punitive: sub-section 26-35(4) operates to treat the non-deductible part of the payment the relative receives as non-taxable (NANE income) to the relative. So in the example assessments of income of X, Y and Z are all in the frame for adjustment by the Commissioner so the reduction in the tax deduction for salary and wages to X can be effected.

Income tax return requirements

The onerous part of section 26-35 is that X must keep sufficient records to substantiate that the payments to relatives claimed as deductions are reasonable. As usual a taxpayer needs to self assess and the burden of proving a payment, such as of salary, is reasonable is on the taxpayer: see our blog The burden of proof in a tax objection

In support of a claim of a reasonable deduction for a payment paid to relative a taxpayer such as X must also return the total of all payments made to associates in their income tax return. This is a flag to the Commissioner that deductions have been claimed for payments to relatives and, for a safe harbour to support the total associate payments deducted, the Commissioner states that a taxpayer needs to keep:

  • full name of relative or other related entity
  • relationship
  • age, if under 18 years of age
  • nature of duties performed
  • hours worked
  • total remuneration
  • salaries or wages claimed as deductions
  • other amounts paid – for example, retiring gratuities, bonuses and commissions.

for the Commissioner’s inspection. In the 2022 income tax return X might complete this item is:

P16 Payments to associated persons

with amounts comprising total associate payments deducted returned at item G item P15, These records need to be kept even if, in the view of the taxpayer and his or her advisers, the payments made by the taxpayer to relatives are reasonable and say even align with award entitlements.

Exclusions

The regime catches payments to partnerships where a partner is a relative however a payment by a partnership to a partner (of the same partnership) who is a relative of another partner (of that partnership) is not caught: proviso in sub-section 26-35(3). Hence the above records are not required in the context of deductible payments made to say a wife partner by a husband and wife partnership. (Not of partnership [agreement] “salary” which is not deductible in any case.)

A payment of a deductible superannuation contribution by X as an employer for Y or Z is also not necessarily caught by this regime where the payment is not to a relative either directly or indirectly via a company, trust or partnership within the section 26-35 of the ITAA 1997 and section 65 of the ITAA 1936 regime. The relative is less likely to become entangled in this regime where the relative is not an individual trustee of the superannuation fund contributed to by X.

The tax burden of handing over business assets to trust beneficiaries

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Business assets of GST registered entities, including business assets of a business carried on in a trust, attract significant tax concessions and advantages including:

  • income tax deductibility – generally either in the income year when they cost money: notably on purchase, or across their effective life in the case of depreciation; and
  • goods and services tax (GST) credits on GST creditable acquisitions.

It is to be expected that there are clawbacks under the taxation law when a business asset, that has attracted concessions and advantages under the taxation system in anticipation of its productive business use, is transferred to a beneficiary of a business trust that owns the asset for the beneficiary’s private use.

Trading stock taken out of a business for private use

It can be seen with business trading stock, for example, that a strictly market value disposition is taken to occur for income tax purposes when trading stock is taken for private use without regard to the money that may have changed hands. This treatment contrasts with the more flexible choice of actual cost, replacement cost and market selling value that is allowed to a business in determining trading stock on hand: section 70-45 of the Income Tax Assessment Act (ITAA) 1997.

Section 70-90 of the ITAA 1997 includes the market value of trading stock in income assessable to income tax when it is disposed of outside of the ordinary course of business. Section 70-100 can also include the market value of trading stock in the same income where the item, though not disposed of, has ceased to be trading stock.

Handing over depreciable equipment

The balancing charge or adjustment which is assessable to income tax on the disposal of an item of depreciable plant and equipment, such as a car used in the business of a trust, is determined based on its termination value. Where a business (taxpayer) stops holding the item under a non-arm’s length dealing for less than market value, then the item’s termination value is taken to be the market value of the item just before that dealing under item 6 in the table in section 40-300 of the ITAA 1997.

Where business equipment being depreciated by a trust is used privately by a beneficiary of the trust without being disposed of to the beneficiary the item will precipitate a non-deductible private use proportion of use of the equipment. When the item is eventually sold or otherwise disposed of for more than its cost, a capital gain under CGT event K7 attributable to the private use component can arise to the trustee of the trust.

Taxable GST supply without consideration

Generally a supply of property, goods or services by a business that is registered or required to be registered for GST for consideration is a taxable supply. Under section 72-5 of the A New Tax System (Goods And Services Tax) Act 1999 a supply to an associate:

  • not registered or required to be registered for GST; or
  • where the associate acquires the thing supplied otherwise than for a solely creditable purpose;

is treated as taxable supply even when there is no consideration for the supply. The value of a section 72-5 taxable supply without consideration (a price) is the GST exclusive market value of the supply: section 72-10.

Not worth the tax and accounting trouble

It can be seen from the above that taxation consistently based on market value substitution applies to non-arm’s length provision of business assets to beneficiaries of business trusts for the beneficiary’s private use.

The in specie distribution of a business asset of a GST registered trust to a trust beneficiary for no consideration, or an inadequate consideration, (price) is thus discouraged by the clawbacks. There is no apparent tax advantage to a trust in giving an asset to a beneficiary of the trust when the gift is compared to a sale of the asset. A sale raises far fewer tax compliance challenges!

How getting the business asset to the beneficiary might be done?

A less problematic way to achieve the same thing would be for the trustee to simply sell the business asset in the ordinary course of its business to the beneficiary for its market value (plus GST in the case of a sale by a GST registered business trust) and, concurrently make a capital distribution to the beneficiary to cover the price. Then the clawbacks would not need to be endured.

$3,000 deduction cap for managing personal tax affairs – non-millionaires caught in the cross-fire?

Labor’s Fairer Tax System plan

The ALP’s Andrew Leigh and Chris Bowen announced their A Fairer Tax System for Millions, Not Millionaires plan on 13 May 2017. The plan is comprised of a number of laudable and progressive policy announcements including transparency improvements that will impede tax avoidance by wealthy taxpayers and multinationals.

These policies are:

  1. $3,000 cap on deductions for managing their tax affairs for individuals.
  2. Public reporting of country-by-country reports.
  3. Whistleblower protection and rewards.
  4. Mandatory shareholder reporting of tax haven exposure.
  5. Public reporting of Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) data.
  6. Government tenderers must disclose their country of tax domicile.
  7. Develop guidelines for tax haven investment by superannuation funds.
  8. Publicly accessible registry of the beneficial ownership of Australian listed companies.
  9. Australian Taxation Office disclosure of settlements and reporting of aggressive tax minimisation.

The first measure, which this blog post concerns, is a proposed cap of $3,000 on the income tax deduction for managing personal tax affairs. There is no doubt this cap will restrict tax deductibility, which is substantially the funding by other taxpayers, of wealthy taxpayers’ tax professional costs of devising ways to avoid paying Australian tax.

Why an arbitrary $3,000 cap?

Still the $3,000 cap is arbitrary and there is, somehow, a disconnect in the announcement between the proposed cap and the millionaires against whom it is targeted. Why is the cap $3,000 rather than $30,000? My point is that it is not so unusual for ordinary taxpayers, particularly property owners who are not millionaires at whom the Fairer Tax System proposals are directed, to rack up tax professional costs of more than $3,000 for managing their tax affairs in an income year. The $3,000 cap includes tax agent costs for annual tax return preparation and lodgment so the remaining cap to deal with remaining tax difficulties or obligations will be something less than $3,000. So, although the measure will achieve its aim to curb deductibility of these costs to millionaires, there will be taxpayers who are not millionaires who will be collaterally caught with non-deductible tax professional costs in excess of the cap.

It is not so clear that the cap has been designed by someone who has real experience of seriously high individual tax professional costs and of situations where they may happen. Sure, all being well, a salary earner who owns real estate and who engages a tax agent, who charges moderately, will have tax professional costs in an income year comfortably under the cap. However, the salary earner with tax difficulties out of the ordinary may find himself or herself with a need to take a considered custom professional tax advice or to have his or her tax advisor non-prejudicially apply for a binding private ruling to protect himself or herself under the self assessment system.

The self assessment system

Out of the ordinary doesn’t mean tax avoidance is going on. Under the self assessment system a taxpayer is responsible for correct reporting and filing of tax information and severe penalties and interest apply if the taxpayer makes an error and a tax shortfall is assessed. If the taxpayer has an activity or activities where the tax treatment is unclear then it is the taxpayer who must ensure his or her return or other statements to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) complies with tax law adopting, in the least, a reasonably arguable position on items in the return or statements that are contentious.

Something over $2,000 is not a big budget for obtaining a tax advice letter or a position paper or for professional preparation of an application for a private binding ruling or a complex objection. Often issues an individual can face can take a tax professional a couple of days or more to do thoroughly.

It can be costly just to understand obligations imposed by government

Not so long ago I was briefed to give tax advice to an owner of a heritage building about to enter into a sale of “transferable floor space” in compliance with local government heritage laws. The interaction of the relevant capital gains tax (CGT) and goods and service tax (GST) laws with property, environment and local government laws, cases and public rulings took considerable time to work through even in the absence of any live dispute about these matters with the ATO. $2,000 would have been a fraction of fees for the time needed to give advice so that the client understood the client’s CGT and GST obligations on the sale . The correct application of CGT events and tax rules that apply in this client’s situation are notably unclear and difficult and, in its rulings, the ATO takes positions which some may view as confused and ambiguous. A withering array of laws applied to this heritage building owner.

Each of these laws, considered separately, benefit or aim to benefit government, society and thus other taxpayers by the contribution of taxes, the stimulation of commerce and the preservation of heritage buildings. But is it fair for society to impose such a multitude of obligations on a not necessarily wealthy building owner yet severely reduce society’s contribution to the owner’s costs of compliance with them?

You see much of my work, and the work of many other tax advisors who act for clients who are not necessarily wealthy, is just to advise or explain how the tax law applies to them and what their position is. Generally, as the tax laws have been tweaked and greatly expanded over time, the tax laws do not present exploitative opportunities to ordinary taxpayers for avoidance. There are, of course, exceptions.

The CGT provisions are a good example of tax laws that are necessarily intricate and complex. $2,000 in professional advice costs just to understand a CGT position in an advice from a CGT expert won’t go far. The CGT rules can apply, and severely, to taxpayers who own property, securities and other valuables. If the owner dies or is a non-resident the complexity can ratchet up. Not all of the aforementioned are millionaires.

It can be costly to get a ruling or guidance from the Australian Taxation Office

It is frequently the case that an ordinary taxpayer is unable to articulate, or would be disadvantaged having to personally articulate, a technical capital gains tax problem to the ATO without professional assistance in order to obtain guidance or a binding private ruling from the ATO. So an ordinary taxpayer can be justified in seeking substantial tax professional help applying for a private binding ruling from the ATO. If a binding private ruling adverse to the taxpayer is issued by the ATO the taxpayer may seek to dispute the ruling and still further tax professional help is needed. The taxpayer’s professional tax advisor may need to attend the ATO or prepare an objection or appeal.

The intractability of many tax problems, notably capital gains tax problems, is usually not the fault of the taxpayer but is a feature of complex tax law seeking to impose tax obligations in a wide diversity of situations fairly on the tax paying community.

Costly tax problems not of concern to wealthy taxpayers

A taxpayer of modest means suffers an injury at work and receives an ongoing insurance payout. This taxpayer is the opposite of a millionaire. Still the taxation of the insurance payout gives rise to the income versus capital conundrum on which the Australian income tax system continues to rely. The payouts fall through the cracks of types of insurance payout that are afforded tax exempt status under the Income Assessment Acts 1936 and 1997. If the payouts are capital then capital gains on personal injury payouts are exempt from CGT so there is a lot of tax at stake if the payouts should be treated as capital rather than as assessable income.

Pursuing capital treatment of the payouts is not tax avoidance by the wealthy. Inevitably ruling, objection and appeal costs of disputing that the payouts are not assessable income are likely to be way in excess of $3,000.

These kinds of cases appear often enough in published Administrative Appeals Tribunal reports, and there are plenty below the visible tip of that iceberg to show that they still remain a frequent and expensive kind of tax dispute for injury victims. To deprive injury victims of tax deductibility for costs of their tax dispute to target other less deserving taxpayers is tough indeed on taxpayers affected. It is of no consolation to an ordinary taxpayer who can’t claim most of their seriously high tax professional costs that he or she is one of a number of less than 90,000 taxpayers who incur more than $3,000 in tax professional costs each income year.

Australia’s tax system abounds in these kinds of structural challenges. Whether or not an activity of a taxpayer amounts to “an adventure in the nature of trade” and consequently an enterprise carried on by a taxpayer attracting a GST obligation, is another good example of a tax uncertainty a taxpayer who is not a millionaire may find costly to solve in their case and may not solve without taking valuable professional assistance.

The cap binary and alternatives to better target the cap

So if $3,000 might not be enough of a cap to ensure fair operation of the cap, why impose a binary limitation with such a confidence in the announcement that its impact will be on millionaires?

The small business capital gains tax measures themselves show that the demarcation between “small” and bigger business is not necessarily easily achieved as shown by the unwieldy $6 million net asset test. A demarcation between ordinary and “millionaire” taxpayers to qualify for exemption under the cap may be similarly difficult. But might it be possible to devise a targeted cap which looks at the character of the professional tax costs of a taxpayer of managing their personal tax affairs so that the cap operates more equitably?

For instance could costs of professional tax work just directed at establishing the position of a taxpayer under certain tax laws on non-contrived circumstances be exempted from the cap? Most capital gains tax rules could be within that exemption. If the professional work addressed specific anti-avoidance measures, the general anti-avoidance provisions or exploitative tax planning the professional work could be “tainted” by that consideration and so fall outside of the exemption. One difficulty is that some sort of “chinese wall” solution may be needed so privileged thus confidential tax advice could be considered to verify whether the costs of the professional tax law assistance is exempt from a targeted cap on costs of managing tax affairs.

It may be possible to conveniently go through all of the (many) tax laws and classify those where issues and disputes arising from them are benign, in an avoidance context, as exempt from the cap. Often wealthy taxpayers and their advisers have little interaction with these laws and so exempting them would not give wealthy taxpayers any advantage. That would better achieve the aim of the Fairer Tax System plan.

Are there limits to interest deductions in Australia in participative loan arrangements involving entities in the same economic group?

Question on taxlinked.net members forum about Participative Loan Taxation

Since 1st January 2015 in Spain, interests are (interest is) not tax deductible when the participative loan is agreed to between entities of the same economic group. Is there similar treatment in your countries?

Response to post

Generally not in Australia.

In Australia interest is deductible if incurred on debt finance obtained to earn assessable income or to carry on a business even if debt finance arrangements include entities not dealing with each other at arms length.

These deductibility tests are serious purposive tests so non-arms length transactions attract particular scrutiny and, like in most jurisdictions, the burden of making out either purpose is on the taxpayer. As well as the general construct of sham there are a numerous specific instances where the Australian law denies interest deductions including:

  • sometimes where deductions are prepaid;
  • where there is not a sufficient relation between the loan and income received after a “commonsense” or “practical” weighing of the circumstances; and
  • where deductions are artificial or contrived or have those elements– if specific anti-avoidance rules do not apply.

Australia has a longstanding general anti-avoidance provision that can apply even if the interest deduction was otherwise available under the law. In international outbound financing the deduction can be lost because foreign income can be treated as other than assessable income. International debt/hybrid mismatch rules are being developed in Australia following some taxpayer success resisting anti-avoidance rules and the international experience.

Deductions are also lost if a “loan” is technically found to have characteristics of equity in substance.

Australian courts look at the role of associated entities to understand their purpose and look at transactions holistically. In other words they will focus on the economic units, rather than on juristic entities which seems to happening in Spain from what you say. Hence an interest deduction to an entity can be reduced, for instance, if the debt finance is on-lent to a related entity to earn income palpably less than the deduction.

Australia also has thin capitalisation rules which apply to limit otherwise allowable large cross border interest deductions.

Chevron Australia is involved in the first major transfer pricing case under the new BEPS regime where the Commissioner of Taxation is fighting to contend that interest paid and deducted exceeded the arms length amount based on BEPS arms length principles. The Commissioner won the first stage of the case in 2015.