Rental Property Travel Deductions – ATO has released guidelines regarding what can be claimed for rental property owners – they identify that any travel to a rental property where the travel was for private purposes or use of the property, to carry out repairs while the property was not available for rent or being rented and any travel to carry out repairs of a capital nature (ie not associated with wear and tear) are not deductible (but may be able to be added to the capital cost of the house for CGT calculations).

C of T v Barnes Development – the courts decided in favour of the ATO to allow the tax office to pursue a trustee company and family trust for recovery of tax debts owed by individual beneficiaries, where the trust owed money to the individuals as a result of tax planning accounting entries – this was effective even after the accounts where cleared.

In the case of C of T v Leaseplan Australia – the courts decided in favour of the taxpayer in concluding that where the taxpayer acquired motor vehicles from employees of other companies, that it then leased back to the employees, they could claim a GST credit, even though the employees were not registered for GST – this was permitted through subsection 66-5(1) of the GST Act – businesses in the business of acquiring second hand goods from unregistered private sellers for resale can claim a GST credit for the purchase price of the goods.