This article examines the Productivity Commission’s report into migrant intake into Australia and recent articles calling for an increase in the fees payable for contributory parent visas.
Family law and “pre-nup” agreements Also in June 2016, a couple had reportedly encoded a prenuptial template into a Smart Contract on the Ethereum blockchain. This lighthearted “pre-nup” included particular requirements such as mandatory date nights every 10 days and obligations to watch movie series in succession. While we see this as a promising start…
This marks the third and final instalment in our Insights | Bitcoins and blockchain series. In this section we consider some of the limitations of automating aspects of corporate distributions and family law. From the analysis we have undertaken further below, it appears that Smart Contract failure will arise in cases where there is a…
We have summarised the High Court’s recent judgment in the ANZ penalties case in a single page for your easy digestion below (legal boffins will get more benefit from trawling through 129 pages). We note that our comments do not address the alternative statutory claims also dismissed by the High Court. Is a late payment a penalty?…
Recently I posted our article GST Insights | Consequences of non-resident on-selling off the plan properties. Only days later, I found myself acting for clients dealing with a vendor who refused to register for GST. The Vendor’s legal structure The vendor’s legal structure looked something like this (I was not invited to review any documentation but after discussing the…
The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of the potential international tax implications for Australian corporate groups with a significant presence in Europe in a post-exit environment. In saying this, we acknowledge that it is impossible to reliably predict the mid to long term cross-border tax profile of post-exit UK and EU at this point in time (noting…
Background Most readers will be aware of the Australian banking sector’s refusal to lend to non-resident investors using foreign income as a basis for meeting lending criteria. Off-the-plan property is attractive to non-resident investors for a host of reasons, but in particular, they are an asset class for which no FIRB approval is required. Having…
In Part 1 of our Insights | Bitcoins and blockchains series we introduced the concepts of Bitcoin and blockchains; we also discussed some of the commercial reasons why Bitcoin surged in popularity as a digital currency and alternative means of settling transactions. Parts 2 to 4 of our series will explore potential applications of blockchain technology to the banking, corporate…
In part 3 of our Tax insights | investing in property series, we discuss the CGT main residence exemption to situations involving multiple main residences. Multiple properties – which do you choose as your main residence? For some owner-investors, a simple but effective property strategy can involve owning and occupying a dwelling and “trading up” from…
Digital crypto-currencies and blockchain self-executing contracts and instruments are this week’s buzz words. So how does the law, tax and GST fit into the equation? In Part 1 of our Insights | Bitcoins and Blockchain series, we provide a brief introduction to the Bitcoin and Blockchain technology. In future installments, we will discuss the application of law, Australian income…