10 Mar

West Garbutt Principal Lyndon Garbutt recently presented at the 11th Legalwise Brisbane Property Lawyers conference, providing practical tips to property lawyers  on GST and Queensland land tax. For people wanting to access a copy of the slides please click on the link below.  Should more detailed advice be required, or you would like assistance with identifying the GST and land tax implications of your property transaction, then please contact one of our specialist GST lawyers. To access this document, please click: Legalwise Property Lawyers - GST and Land Tax ...

15:45 / GST / Land Tax
29 Nov

The ATO will be notifying all tax agents in early December 2019 regarding which of their clients will be coming under review by the expansion of its Tax Avoidance Task Force. Affected taxpayers include any private wealth groups that control more than $5 million in wealth or have more than $10 million in turnover.  Essentially, the ATO has: expanded its Top 320 program to be a Top 500 program, focusing on the 500 largest private wealth groups in Australia introduced a new high wealth private groups program focused on private groups with more than $50 million in wealth introduced a new medium and emerging private groups program focused on private...

15:23 / CGT / GST / Income Tax
24 Oct

West Garbutt Principal Lyndon Garbutt recently co-presented with Steven Fogarty of the ATO at the Queensland Law Society Property Law Conference in Brisbane on the topic of getting GST right for property transactions. GST as it applies to property transactions is complex and can have unexpected consequences. The co-presenters provided an insight into: how to manage GST risk how to avoid common traps associated with documenting GST clauses common issues encountered in claiming the going concern exemption and margin scheme concession obligations on purchasers relating to GST withholdings. For people wanting to access a copy of the slides please click on the link below.  Should more...

15:32 / GST
03 Oct

Lyndon Garbutt, Principal of West Garbutt presented on the complexity of GST as it applies to property transactions at the 2019 Queensland Property and Construction Intensive held by the Taxation Institute of Australia.

The presentation focused on how to identify and manage various GST risks faced by property developers and the importance of seeking input from GST lawyers prior to entering into transactions to ensure GST implications are properly considered and appropriate GST clauses drafted.

16:37 / GST
29 Jan

West Garbutt have extensive expertise and experience in representing clients subject to a variety of revenue audits including Top 320 income tax audits, wealthy Australian income tax audits, GST audits, payroll tax audits and land tax audits. In the attached article, Lyndon Garbutt and Michael McLaughlin describe how best to guard against tax audit risk, summarising:
  • why high wealth individuals and private wealth groups have an increased exposure to the risk of income tax audits;OK
  • the potential costs of tax audits; and
  • strategies to help manage the risk associated with audits.  
17:25 / GST / Income Tax / Land Tax / Payroll Tax / Stamp Duty