On 9 May 2017, as part of the 2017/18 Federal Budget, the Government announced changes to the foreign resident capital gains withholding regime which apply to vendors selling real property, shares in non-listed property rich companies and units in unlisted property trusts from 1 July 2017.

A recent case represents a willingness of judges (at least in the Supreme Court of New South Wales) to allow taxpayers the necessary time to pursue their rights under Part IVC of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 even in situation where the winding up of a taxpayer is justified. 

ASX released compliance update 03/17 on 21 April 2017. Item 1 of the update provides details of ASX’s response to its consultation on reverse takeovers and provides details of the proposed Listing Rule amendments to accommodate its outcomes.

The Corporations Amendment (Crowd-sourced Funding) Bill 2016 creates a framework for facilitating crowd-sourced equity funding.

After a 5 month consultation period and robust debate from a wide range of market participants and the professional services industry, the final amendments to the ASX admission requirements came into effect on 19 December 2016.

The ATO has released Taxpayer Alert cautioning against arrangements that minimise tax by trust arrangements.

The High Court has clarified the question of how a company can be controlled and managed in its unanimous dismissal of appeals by four companies from a decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia.