A repository of legal publications and information

The Federal Department of Treasury has recently released a discussion paper concerning the financial reporting obligations of unlisted public company’s which includes companies limited by guarantee (CLGs). Part of the driver behind the discussion paper which may lead to Corporations Act changes has been developments at a State level with reform to legislation governing incorporated associations. In particular, recent amendments to the Queensland Associations Incorporation Act (AIA) have, amongst other things, reformed the rules surrounding audit requirements for incorporated associations (these were dealt with in an earlier Fox and Thomas Not for Profit Bulletin).

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Once upon a time, estate planning lawyers could adequately protect the interests of their clients by the skilful gifting of assets or the use of other family controlled entities such as family trusts. The landscape now is quite different so that any estate planning or asset protection strategy necessarily requires a detailed understanding of recent amendments to the Bankruptcy Act (BA). Read more

The effect of the amendment is to allow a tax deduction for donations of listed shares to deductible gift recipients (DGRs) from 1 July 2007. From this date a tax deduction is available for donations of listed shares valued at $5,000.00 or less and acquired at least 12 months before the gift was made. Read more

In an earlier bulletin I profiled a decision of the Queensland Industrial Court last year concerning Educang Ltd which was a joint venture company between the Anglican and Uniting Churches. The QIC held that Educang was a “trading corporation” for the purposes of the Federal Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act (Work Choices) which came into effect on 27 March 2006 on the basis that some 50% of its income was derived from trading activities. which included: Read more

After more than four years of review, long anticipated changes to the Associations Incorporation Act (”AIA”) were finally passed on 20 March 2007 with passage of the Associations Incorporation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2006. Read more

Many family discretionary trusts that were established in the 70s or early 80s provided for fixed vesting dates. That is to say, a fixed date by which the trust should come to an end and all trust assets distributed. In older deeds it was quite common for the term of the trust to continue for only 30 years or thereabouts meaning that a lot of family trust deeds in use today are nearing their vesting date. Once a trust vests then, amongst other things, revenue implications in terms of stamp duty and capital gains tax arise as assets are sold and funds distributed to beneficiaries or distributed in specie to beneficiaries. Read more

The recent Weekend Australian article entitled “Don’t Sacrifice a House for Super” analysed the various pros and cons of selling an investment property to take advantage of the $1 million after-tax (undeducted) contributions which can be made to superannuation in a one-off special concession before 30 June this year. This concession was granted by the Federal Government in the last Federal Budget.

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The Brisbane office will be headed by new partner, Paul Paxton-Hall, who will be ably assisted by senior associate, Melissa Fitzpatrick. Paul has been practising in the commercial and property fields of the law for 27 years and will provide a great depth of expertise in our business services offering. Paul also brings with him a wealth of experience acting for a wide range of not-for-profit organisations including schools, charitable organisations, sporting bodies, professional associations, churches and hospitals.

Fox and Thomas is proud to announce the opening of our Brisbane city office at
North Quay. Having served the Goondiwindi and St George districts since the early 1900s, we are expanding to Brisbane in an effort to better resource our service to existing clients and broaden our overall service offerings to allow greater focus on business advisory services, business succession and estate planning, commercial property and other business services.

The Brisbane office will provide a convenient base for servicing clients who are diversifying from agribusiness or moving location closer the city. Read more