Uncategorized
-
Insights | Taxation of Daigo activities
The ABC recently published a feature article on the “Daigo” phenomenon. For those who aren’t familiar with that expression and too time poor to read the entire ABC article, “Daigo” refers generally to private shoppers, relevantly based in Australia, who traditionally purchase high demand items such as baby formula powder or vitamins or supplements for consumption…
-
No cemetery in Wallacia: overview of the IPC decision
On 12 July 2019, the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) made its direction to the Sydney Western City Planning Panel for the refusal of the proposed Wallacia Memorial Park development. The IPC’s webpage for the Wallacia Memorial Park application may be accessed here. As a former Wallacia resident, the principal of Stratos Lawyers supported the local…
-
Insights | High Court decision summary – prenups and postnups
The purpose of this article is to provide fellow practitioners and our readership with a working summary of the recent High Court decision in Thorne v Kennedy [2017] HCA 49. In case you are looking for a one-liner conclusion: the rumours of the prenup’s/postnup’s demise are greatly exaggerated. Preliminary matters A few preliminary considerations arise…
-
NSW land tax alert: airbnb activities
There is currently speculation that the airbnb economy will be targeted under new land tax measures. This article considers the current land tax position in NSW with respect to airbnb activities. The AFR recently reported that the State of Tasmania is currently evaluating a new land tax rule to raise revenue from “airbnb” arrangements involving the…
-
Insights | Bitcoins and blockchains Part 3 (cont.)
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…
-
Insights | Bitcoins and blockchain Part 3 | corporate governance and family law
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…
-
Sydney Markets’ Fresh Awards 2016: Produce Grower of the Year goes to Goldenfield
I am pleased to report that last month, Goldenfield was crowned by Sydney Markets as the 2016 Produce Grower of the Year in its annual Fresh Awards. My brother expressed a mixture of disbelief and surprise at Goldenfield winning the award. For my part, I think that speaks more to his humble nature and does not reflect…
-
Insights | High Court ANZ penalties case
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?…
-
Courts and Pokemon Go
Yesterday the NSW Department of Justice posted a warning to all enthusiastic Pokemon Go players not to use any recording device in a Court having regard to section 9 of the Court Security Act 2005 (NSW)(the Act). It is worth taking a moment to review the Court Security Act 2005 (NSW) to consider what use of recording devices are prohibited…
-
GST Insights | incorrect GST treatment on off-the-plan transactions
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…