This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This core tax subject examines the law, policy and structural features of capital gains tax (CGT) in Australia and considers and applies CGT rules in a number of different private and business contexts. The subject examines the operation of CGT in detail in the context of the treatment of information and goodwill, earn-outs, the application of CGT to non-residents, in relation to real estate transactions, litigation and the use of trusts and deceased estates.

Principal topics include:

• Structure of the capital gains tax system and its interaction with other tax provisions
• Selected CGT Events and their key concepts
• The CGT treatment of information and goodwill
• The CGT treatment of earn-outs
• The application of CGT to non-residents
• CGT and business structures, restructuring, available rollovers and the small business CGT concessions
• Capital gains tax problems in conveyancing and real estate development
• Capital gains tax problems in compensation payouts
• Capital gains tax problems in trusts and estates.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This core tax subject examines the policies, detailed rules and current practical problems involved in the taxation of companies and shareholders in Australia, particularly at shareholder level. The lecturers are leading practitioners and they will consider the tax rules that apply to shares, corporate distributions, Australia‘s imputation system and the debt-equity integrity rules.

This subject consists of a detailed examination of the tax rules applied to companies and shareholders in a domestic setting in Australia, with a focus on issues at the shareholder level.

Principal topics include:

• The policy and problems of taxing companies and shareholders
• Tax treatment of contributions of share capital and assets to a company
• Debt-equity classification
• The corporate shareholder imputation system
• Private company deemed dividends
• Franking credit and capital streaming and associated anti-avoidance rules
• Taxation of company distributions and dealings with interests in companies, including liquidations and share buybacks.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This core tax subject examines the fundamentals of taxation, with a focus on Australia’s most important tax: the personal income tax. It engages with the tax law that is most relevant to legal and tax practice for individuals and businesses.

This subject equips students to interpret statutory tax rules and apply judicial approaches, and to understand the policy and implications of tax reform in this fast-changing and challenging area of law. This subject is required for international tax students and is recommended for all masters students who have had little previous study or experience in tax law and wish to gain a solid grounding in the area

Principal topics include:

• Overview of federal and state taxes in Australia, how tax laws are made, sources of tax law, tax policy and design principles and reform
• The structure of the income tax, concept of income and tax rates
• Income tax law, including calculation of taxable income; definition of income from services, property and business, capital gains, deductions and treatment of business and investment assets
• Overview of income tax of business and investment entities
• Tax avoidance and evasion, and the general anti-avoidance rule.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This core tax subject is designed to explore in detail the fundamental principles of income tax, fringe benefits tax and capital gains tax in relation to business and investment. It will provide the requisite skills and knowledge to identify and better deal with income tax problems that arise in practice and in other tax subjects. The lecturers are leading practitioners or academics with extensive experience in the field.

Principal topics include:

• The structure of the Australian income tax system
• The structure of the legislation, interaction mechanisms and derivation
• Multi-step transactions
• Deferred payments
• Expense characterisation and calculation of cost
• Valuation and conditions of employment
• Reimbursements and apportionment of deductions
• Capital gains tax: dissecting receipts and part disposals
• Deemed disposals
• Capital allowances and cost-base write-down
• Creation of liabilities
• Reimbursement and recovery of expenses.

This subject examines contemporary developments in administrative law and how they apply to the Tax Commissioner and the taxpayer. In the last 15 years the High Court has rapidly developed administrative law principles that apply to constrain government officials’ powers and duties, in taxation, immigration and other jurisprudence. This subject will draw upon those principles developed across various types of government activity and apply them to the Tax Commissioner’s exercise of powers.

Principal topics will include:

• The principle of legality and limits on the powers of the Commissioner of Taxation
• Jurisdictional error, natural justice, failure to carry out legislative purposes, relevant and irrelevant considerations and improper purpose
• The general power of administration
• The process of seeking review
• Review of General Interest Charge remission decisions
• Garnishee orders
• Seeking relief and remedies

This subject will examine Australia’s Goods and Services Tax (GST). The subject identifies the core legislative features in Australia’s GST contained in the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999.

The subject includes:

• reference to the value-added tax systems in other jurisdictions such as the European Union, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Singapore; and
• analysis of rulings and cases that are relevant to the operation of, and compliance with, Australia’s GST in practice.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to the GST: the objectives of a tax on household consumption expenditure and the design features and legislative scheme of Australia’s GST
• GST’s ‘basic rules’ and the legislative building blocks contained in the GST law: the taxable person, consumption expenditure, tax value, registration, jurisdictional scope, supplies to and from offshore, exemptions, the destination principle (exports and imports) and input tax relief.
• A legislative overview of the Australian GST treatment of the “difficult to tax” issues: real property and financial services.

The Australian states and territories levy various taxes on businesses and individuals, including payroll tax, land tax, duties on transfers and acquisitions, leases and workers’ compensation levies. Interpreting and complying with this multitude of taxes, only some of which are harmonised across state borders, poses significant challenges for Australian businesses and state revenue agencies alike. Many jurisdictions are enacting more comprehensive anti-avoidance and business entity rules in key state taxes - for example, those applying to trusts or corporate groups - and there is increasing litigation on state taxes in courts around the country. This subject will provide tax professionals with an advanced knowledge of the structure and practical operation of state taxes and duties in a commercial context, taking account of the most recent trends and developments in this field.

This subject will consider in detail the operation of various state taxes and duties, in particular:

• Duties
• Land tax
• Payroll tax and workers’ compensation levies.

Principal topics include:

• Analysis of duties, land tax, payroll tax and workers’ compensation levies legislation in Victoria and brief comparisons with other jurisdictions
• Consideration of Victorian duty liabilities on various dutiable transactions, landholder acquisitions and other business and commercial transactions
• Consideration of the key features and concepts relevant to how land tax is assessed in Victoria
• Consideration of the types of compensation that are subject to payroll tax and/or workers’ compensation levies
• The broad range of anti-avoidance provisions
• Exemptions from state taxes, duties and levies
• Administration of the state taxes system, including obligations to provide information and rights to object to assessments and appeal.

This subject examines both general and specific anti-avoidance provisions in Australia and in comparable jurisdictions. The subject will examine in detail the provisions of Part IVA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth), as well as its Goods and Services Tax (GST) equivalent, and consider the differences between permissible tax planning and impermissible tax avoidance.

Principal topics include:

• Concepts of tax avoidance
• General anti-avoidance provisions
• Specific anti-avoidance provisions
• Judicial responses to tax avoidance
• Obligations of taxpayers and advisers in relation to tax avoidance
• Tax avoidance and consolidation.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This specialist subject taught by leading members of the Victorian Bar specialising in tax, teaches all of the legal principles associated with tax litigation. It addresses the system of tax appeals, administrative and judicial review of decisions made by the Commissioner, evidence-gathering and the preparation of objections, tax appeal statements, affidavits, expert reports and legal submissions in a tax case. It explains how tax cases are tried and how they are dealt with at appellate level. It also covers the rulings system, the imposition and review of penalties and the Commissioner‘s rights of recovery. The focus of the subject is on the practical, and not theoretical, application of these principles.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction and the appeals process under Part IVC of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth)
• Challenging an assessment, objections, objections decisions and appeal
• The audit process and the Commissioner‘s information-gathering powers
• Interlocutory steps for getting a case ready for trial, including the Federal Court Taxation Practice Note No.1
• Written advocacy—the different needs at various stages of the appeals process
• The hearing
• Use of expert witnesses
• Appeals to Federal, Full Federal and High Courts
• The rulings process
• Judicial review of decisions made by the Commissioner
• Recovery of tax.

This subject is designed for tax professionals and government officials who wish to complete or update their education in corporate tax law and practice. Coordinated and taught by some of Australia’s leading tax advisers, it is focused around a series of topical issues. Using a detailed analysis of these issues, it provides students with in-depth, commercially relevant knowledge of the tax rules for mergers and acquisitions of public and private companies and consolidated corporate groups.

Topics include the application of rollovers that benefit shareholders and companies engaged in takeovers and mergers, especially involving consolidated groups, as well as applicable tax integrity rules and recent and ongoing tax reform.

Principal topics include:

• Corporate capital gains tax rollovers for mergers, acquisitions and disposals, including Divisions 124, 125 and 126 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth), in particular scrip for scrip, demerger and various corporate restructure rollovers
• The interaction of tax rules relating to mergers, acquisitions and restructures with key elements of the tax rules for consolidated corporate groups in Part 3-90 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) including rules for tax cost setting on entry and exit, foreign-owned multiple entry consolidated groups, tax-sharing and payment, due diligence and corporate risk
• The interaction of tax rules relating to mergers, acquisitions and disposal with the imputation system and corporate financing tax rules.

Although relevant for all superannuation funds, this subject focuses heavily on self-managed superannuation funds (‘SMSFs’). This subject deals with the underlying policies, technical rules and current practical problems in relation to the taxation of SMSFs and their prudential management. In particular, it considers what investments and structures superannuation funds can use while still attracting concessional tax treatment along with how income is taxed, the treatment of contributions to those funds and the taxation of benefits paid. It also includes a detailed consideration of succession planning issues and how to apply those considerations in practice.

Principal topics include:

• The Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (Cth) and the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994 (Cth): Detailed consideration of the key investment and other prudential rules, the policy behind them and how to apply them in practice
• Taxation of superannuation: overview of policy and legislative framework for contributions, investment and the payment of benefits, as well as the different structuring options available to practitioners
• Succession planning: the key rules, where there often is a difference between what an SMSF member wants and what the rules allow, how best to seek to ensure that a member’s wishes are achieved and the interplay with tax (including stamp duty) efficiency.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This core tax subject will examine in depth the Australian income tax rules applicable to trusts, including significant new and ongoing reforms and policy developments. It will apply these rules to the range of applications of trusts, including private trusts such as unit trusts, family discretionary trusts, public managed investment funds, real estate investment trusts, nominee trusts, and stapled structures used by large businesses.

Principal topics include:

• Definition and types of trust at law and for tax purposes and framework of trust tax rules
• Trust distributions, beneficiaries and trustees, present entitlement, net income and flow-through of tax attributes, such as franking credits and capital gains
• Trust losses
• Anti-avoidance and integrity rules
• Capital gains tax for trusts, including formation, distributions, termination, unit trusts and deceased estates
• Managed investment and real estate unit trusts, public trading trusts, and stapled and other trust structures
• Trust tax reform and new developments.

Globalisation is driving corporate tax systems closer together and often into conflict. For many tax practitioners, it is now not enough to know their own corporate tax system—they must grapple with and question the operation of other corporate tax systems. This subject seeks to develop an ability to understand and analyse any corporate tax system and assess its impact on corporate decision-making. With a dedicated textbook (written by the presenter), this subject compares a number of influential and archetypal corporate tax systems (both common law and civil law) and assesses their behaviour in the context of practical problems. For tax professionals, this subject develops an ability to ask direct and informed questions about a foreign corporate tax system and discuss that system at a high level with foreign tax professionals.

This subject will compare and analyse corporate income tax law in selected countries (Australia, Germany, the US and the UK, with some reference to China) and consider how these laws interface with corporate law. Participants will be encouraged to discuss other jurisdictions with which they are familiar and students are permitted to cover other countries in their research paper. The approaches adopted are analysed by reference to various policy options available. There is a particular focus on problems caused by the artificiality of corporations.

Principal topics include:

• Identification of entities (including hybrids) subject to corporation tax
• Corporate groups and personal service companies
• Debt versus equity and relief from economic double taxation of dividends
• Cross-border corporate income and dividends
• Gains/losses on the disposal of shares, takeovers and sale of loss companies
• Corporate formation, share buy-backs and liquidation
• Bonus issues, convertible notes, mergers and demergers.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This subject will provide a detailed comparative analysis of the principal topics in international taxation. Following an introduction to comparative law theories and methods, the core principles of international income tax will be examined, with the different approaches taken by nations (developed, emerging, and developing countries) outlined and critiqued. The compatibility of international tax systems in dealing with international transactions will be examined, and key areas of mismatch and overlap identified. The ongoing reform of international tax rules under the O.E.C.D. Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) and digital taxation projects will be considered. This subject will equip students to analyse international tax issues using a comparative approach and to acquire a deep understanding of the underlying structural, institutional, and policy influences that have shaped international income tax systems. This knowledge is directly applicable to analysing international tax problems in any country.

Principal topics include:

• Broad trends in international tax policy and structure across countries
• Jurisdiction to tax (residence and source)
• Taxation of foreign income of residents, including elimination of double taxation
• Taxation of non-residents, including the scope of source taxation
• International tax expenditures
• International anti-avoidance rules, including controlled foreign company rules, thin capitalisation rules, indirect transfer rules, and transfer pricing
• Tax treaties, including automatic exchange of information
• Transparency initiatives, including disclosure of beneficial owners and country-by-country reporting
• OECD and UN initiatives in international taxation, including BEPS issues, combatting tax evasion, and digital taxation issues

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This subject will examine the nature and extent of, and reasons for, non-compliance with taxation laws in Australia, the government’s investigatory agencies and their powers, with particular reference to their information gathering powers, the range of offences and penalties (civil, criminal and administrative) which apply to non-compliance, the liability of advisers and promoters, the prosecution process and the sentencing of tax offenders. The international dimensions of tax compliance will also be examined.

Principal topics will include:

• The need for compliance and the extent of non-compliance
• Models and theories of compliance
• Investigating non-compliance: legislative and organizational framework
• Obtaining information
• Adviser’s duties and liabilities
• Offences and penalties: civil and administrative
• Criminal prosecutions
• Sentencing tax offenders
• Enforcement and collection
• International compliance and enforcement

This core international tax subject is of central importance given Australia’s ever-growing role in the global economy. This subject covers the fundamental international income tax rules that apply where income or capital gains are derived in circumstances that have a connection with Australia. It considers Australia’s tax jurisdiction of residence and source, and relief from double taxation under domestic law and tax treaties. It also examines measures to prevent tax avoidance, such as controlled foreign company measures and transfer pricing.

This subject is designed to explore in detail the fundamental principles of Australia’s international taxation regime. The subject will examine both the issues of tax design and policy, and the relevant provisions in the legislation, cases and rulings.

Principal topics include:

• Principles of international taxation
• Rules for determining residence and source
• Domestic rules for the taxation of residents’ foreign income (foreign income tax offsets, accruals taxation of foreign income and exemption of foreign income)
• Domestic rules for the taxation of non-residents’ Australian source income (business income, interest, dividends and royalties)
• Introduction to tax treaties
• Introduction to thin capitalisation rules.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This subject provides an overview of United States (US) income tax rules for cross-border investments, transactions, and other activities, with specific relevance for Australians investing into the US and for US persons investing into Australia. The subject will incorporate the latest developments in United States international tax rules, including the 2017 provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It will examine rules, regulations, and administrative practices with an emphasis on case decisions new statutory provisions relating to taxation of foreign persons in the US, taxation of US persons investing abroad, the foreign tax credit, controlled foreign corporations, transfer pricing, and US income tax treaties.

The subject will examine the rules contained in the US Internal Revenue Code (Title 26 of the United States Code), as well as regulations, rulings, and other documents produced by the US Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

Students may find it helpful to consult International Taxation in a Nutshell (11th ed., Herzfeld and Doernberg eds.)(West academic Publishing), but this volume will not be assigned.

Principal topics may include:

• Entity classification rules
• The definition of 'foreign' persons
• The economic substance doctrine
• Source rules
• Statutory rules for taxation of foreign persons
• Taxation of foreign operations of US persons
• US tax treaties
• The foreign tax credit
• Transfer pricing
• Foreign currency.

Today, attention is increasingly focused on tax reform to deliver revenue for spending on public goods so as to achieve fair and sustainable economic development in countries across the globe. This subject examines tax policy to finance development goals and sustainable governments. The subject addresses budget laws; policy and law design principles for taxation, including equity, market efficiency and tax administration; and key taxes. It will analyse how national governments and international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) engage in tax policy and reform and seek to establish global norms and cooperation in taxation. The subject will present topical case studies of high and low income countries. It will address topical issues including tax transparency and multinational tax avoidance, the role of tax in addressing inequality, and international tax competition and cooperation between nations. It will equip participants from tax, development and international law backgrounds to analyse critically the law and policy of budgets and tax systems and the interaction between the global, national and local levels in tax reform.

Principal topics will include:

• Budget policy and laws, including fiscal balance or deficit, transparency and accountability
• Tax mix, tax structures and types of tax
• Tax policy and design principles: sustainability, efficiency, fairness, simplicity and administrability
• Selected tax policy and law issues for key taxes including the personal and company income tax, sales tax and resource taxation
• Tax incentives for foreign investment
• Tax competition and cooperation, tax avoidance and tax havens
• The domestic and international processes of tax treaties, norms and reform.

Globally, countries have negotiated more than 3,000 bilateral tax treaties and the number of treaties continues to grow. Tax Treaties provides an in-depth examination of international tax treaties, regarding both inbound and outbound investment. This subject uses the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Model Treaty and Commentary and examines important tax treaties of Australia and its major trading partners.

Associate Professor Michael Kobetsky has advised the United Nations (UN) and country governments on these issues. This lively, engaging and relevant subject equips students to deal with the most topical and advanced issues of international tax in the application and interpretation of tax treaties, including the meaning of permanent establishment and taxation of business profits, residence and source, the treatment of investment income, exchange of information and avoidance of double taxation.

Principal topics include:

• The role of tax treaties in preventing double taxation and tax avoidance
• Interpretation of tax treaties
• Relationship between tax treaties and domestic law
• Impact of tax treaties on investing in Australia
• Impact of tax treaties on investing overseas
• Entities and tax treaties
• The mutual agreement procedure
• Tax treaties and tax avoidance.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

International transfer pricing is the price charged for the cross-border transfer of assets or services between associated enterprises in a multinational enterprise group. Transfer pricing is consistently identified in international surveys of multinational enterprises as the most important tax issue they face. Multinational enterprises have to deal with demands from the various jurisdictions in which they operate as national tax agencies implement measures to protect their revenue from cross-border trade between associated entities.

This subject studies the Australian transfer pricing rules and their application. The Australian transfer pricing rules are based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Transfer Pricing Guidelines. This subject is designed for tax advisers, in-house tax managers and government officials, as well as those practising in transfer pricing. A background in transfer pricing is not required.

Principal topics include:

• OECD guidelines on transfer pricing
• Australia’s tax legislation and tax rulings on transfer pricing
• Australia’s tax treaties and transfer pricing
• Case law
• Transfer pricing methodologies—selection and application for the following transactions in respect of tangible goods, intangible assets, services and financial transactions
• Transfer pricing documentation requirements
• Performing a comparable search (benchmarking)
• Completing the transfer pricing section of the tax return
• Risk reviews and audit approach.

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

In the 21st century there are multiple levels of government, usually with a degree of constitutional protection, in many states across the world; and the numbers are increasing. The forms vary from federations to provincial or regional government to provision for special, usually asymmetrical autonomy. Multi-level government raises a range of conceptual and practical issues that this subject is designed to explore. In all its forms, it involves a departure to some degree from the assumptions and practices of unitary systems. The subject examines these from the perspectives of both design and operation, analysing the similarities and differences between the forms that multi-level government takes. In doing so, it canvasses topics that include democratic representation, the structure and operation of the public sector, the distribution of fiscal resources, the management of natural resources, judicial interpretation and constitutional change.

The two instructors in the subject, Michael Crommelin and Cheryl Saunders, have a wealth of knowledge in the field that is brought together in this innovative subject.

Principal topics will include:

• Forms of multi-level government
• Unitary states compared
• Constitutional frameworks
• Institutional design in multi-level democracies
• Distribution of fiscal resources
• Management of natural resources
• Administration in multi-level government
• Intergovernmental relations
• Judicial interpretation
• Multi-level government and the international legal order

This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This core tax subject examines the fundamentals of taxation, with a focus on Australia’s most important tax: the personal income tax. It engages with the tax law that is most relevant to legal and tax practice for individuals and businesses.

This subject equips students to interpret statutory tax rules and apply judicial approaches, and to understand the policy and implications of tax reform in this fast-changing and challenging area of law. This subject is required for international tax students and is recommended for all masters students who have had little previous study or experience in tax law and wish to gain a solid grounding in the area

Principal topics include:

• Overview of federal and state taxes in Australia, how tax laws are made, sources of tax law, tax policy and design principles and reform
• The structure of the income tax, concept of income and tax rates
• Income tax law, including calculation of taxable income; definition of income from services, property and business, capital gains, deductions and treatment of business and investment assets
• Overview of income tax of business and investment entities
• Tax avoidance and evasion, and the general anti-avoidance rule.