Case study of Queensland state taxation

1. Like the Commonwealth Tax regime, state taxation legislation has now ballooned in size from the good old days when life and tax were relatively simple issues. 2. This case study of Queensland state taxation will examine the following taxes affecting churches and charities in this state: (a) Stamp Duty (b) Land Tax; and (c) Local Authority Rates 3. Each type of tax will be considered in turn. A brief legislative history of the statutory instruments governing these taxes will be given with a closer examination of the present schemes. Relevant judicial pronouncements will be considered and some open discussion of real life examples. 4. It is submitted that the regular donors to our worthy charities and the dedicated weekly churchgoers would have absolutely no idea: (a) that indirectly the value of their donations and weekly offerings are increasingly being eroded by the imposts of Government not only in terms of the amounts of those imposts but the enormous administrative burden of coping with the legislation; (b) of the complexity of the taxation legislation affecting their churches and charities; or (c) that their churches and charities are even paying taxes.

A select and annotated bibliography of nonprofit taxation

It seems likely that the Industry Commission Inquiry on Charitable Organisations will include a reference to examine the state of taxation and charities. There will no doubt be discussions on the taxation benefits enjoyed by charities. These benefits include not only the exemption from being liable for income tax and enjoying the status of being a "deductible body" for the purpose of gifts, but also fringe benefits tax, sales tax, land tax, stamp duty, financial institutions duty, local government rates and charges as well as electricity, gas, telephone and motor vehicle concessions.

Effect on charitable bodies of taxation alternations

It appears that the Industry Commission terms of reference will include a review of (among other things) the appropriateness of the present taxation treatment of charitable organisations. It is uncertain exactly which taxation treatments might be reviewed. However, at a federal government level, a review of the current taxation treatment of charitable organisations could refer to a review of the following taxation measures...

Embedded tax liabilities and portfolio choice

his study presents an improved method of dealing with embedded tax liabilities in portfolio choice. We argue that using a risk-free discount rate is appropriate for calculating the present value of future tax liabilities. Supportive of recent research, our results found a taxation-induced preference of holding equities over bonds, and a location preference of holding equities in the taxable account and bonds in retirement accounts. These important findings contrast with traditional investment advice which suggests a greater capacity for risk in retirement accounts.

Dying for the bonds of marriage : forced marriages as a weapon of genocide

‘Forced marriages’ involve a woman or girl being abducted and declared the ‘wife’ of her captor without her consent or her family’s consent. The practice generally occurs during wartime and the ‘wife’ is normally subjected to rape, forced impregnation and sexual slavery. Moreover, she is coerced into an intimate relationship with a man who is often the perpetrator of crimes against her and her community. While forced marriages have recently been recognised as a crime against humanity, this Article contends that this does not constitute full recognition of the destructive nature of forced marriages. Instead, this Article mirrors and extends the Akayesu decision that rape can be used as a tool of genocide and maintains that forced marriages can also be a form of genocide.

Principles of Taxation Law 2013

Taxation law can be an incredibly complex subject to absorb, particularly when time is limited. Written specifically for students, Principles of Taxation Law 2013 brings much needed clarity to this area of law. Utilising many methods to make this often daunting subject achievable, particular features of the 2013 edition include: • seven parts: overview and structure, principles of income, deductions and offsets, timing issues, investment and business entities, tax avoidance and administration, and indirect taxes; • clearly structured chapters within those parts grouped under helpful headings; • flowcharts, diagrams and tables, end of chapter practice questions, and case summaries; • an appendix containing all of the up to date and relevant rates; and • the online self-testing component mentor, which provides questions for students of both business and law. Every major aspect of the Australian tax system is covered, with chapters on topics such as goods and services tax, superannuation, offsets, partnerships, capital gains tax, trusts, company tax and tax administration. All chapters have been thoroughly revised. Principles of Taxation Law 2013 is the perfect tool to guide the reader from their initial exposure to the subject to success in taxation law exams.

Australia - taxation of trusts – the problem of aligning concepts of income

The Australian government is currently considering options for the rewrite and reform of the current provisions which apply to the taxation of trust income. This article provides a discussion of the current regime and the proposed reforms. It is suggested that a major revamp of taxation of trust income in Australia is problematic and a simpler approach may be to leave the law as is, with modification where necessary to address key issues as and when they arise.

Tailoring the resonance of bilayer graphene sheets by interlayer sp3 bonds

Graphene-based resonators are envisioned to build the ultimate limit of two-dimensional nanoelectromechanical system due to their ultrasensitive detection of mass, force, pressure and charge. However, such application has been greatly impeded by their extremely low quality factor. In the present work, we explore, using the large-scale molecular dynamics simulation, the possibility of tailoring the resonance properties of a bilayer graphene sheet (GS) with interlayer sp3 bonds. For the bilayer GS resonator with interlayer sp3 bonds, we discovered that the sp3 bonds can either degrade or enhance the resonance properties of the resonator depending on their density and location. It is found that the distribution of sp3 bonds only along the edges of either pristine or hydrogenated bilayer GS, leads to a greatly enhanced quality factor. A quality factor of ~1.18×105 is observed for a 3.07×15.31 nm2 bilayer GS resonator with sp3 bonds, which is more than 30 times larger comparing with that of a pristine bilayer GS. The present study demonstrates that the resonance properties of a bilayer GS resonator can be tuned by introducing sp3 bonds. This finding provides a useful guideline for the synthesis of the bilayer GS for its application as a resonator component.

Principles of Taxation Law 2014 [7th Edition]

"Taxation law can be an incredibly complex subject to absorb, particularly when time is limited. Written specifically for students, Principles of Taxation Law 2014 brings much needed clarity to this area of law. Utilising many methods to make this often daunting subject achievable, particular features of the 2014 edition include: seven parts: overview and structure, principles of income, deductions and offsets, timing issues, investment and business entities, tax avoidance and administration, and indirect taxes; clearly structured chapters within those parts grouped under helpful headings;flowcharts, diagrams and tables, end of chapter practice questions, and case summaries; an appendix containing all of the up to date and relevant rates; and the online self-testing component mentor, which provides questions for students of both business and law. Every major aspect of the Australian tax system is covered, with chapters on topics such as goods and services tax, superannuation, offsets, partnerships, capital gains tax, trusts, company tax and tax administration.All chapters have been thoroughly revised"-- Publishers website

Ozonolysis of phospholipid double bonds during electrospray ionization : A new tool for structure determination

Phospholipids are the key structural component of cell membranes, and recent advances in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry provide for the fast and efficient analysis of these compounds in biological extracts.1-3 The application of electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) to phospholipid analysis has demonstrated several key advantages over the more traditional chromatographic methods, including speed and greater structural information.4 For example, the ESI-MS/MS spectrum of a typical phospholipidsparticularly in negative ion modesreadily identifies the carbon chain length and the degree of unsaturation of each of the fatty acids esterified to the parent molecule.5 A critical limitation of conventional ESI-MS/MS analysis, however, is the inability to uniquely identify the position of double bonds within the fatty acid chains. This is especially problematic given the importance of double bond position in determining the biological function of lipid classes.6 Previous attempts to identify double bond position in intact phospholipids using mass spectrometry employ either MS3 or offline chemical derivatization.7-11 The former method requires specialized instrumentation and is rarely applied, while the latter methods suffer from complications inherent in sample handling prior to analysis. In this communication we outline a novel on-line approach for the identification of double bond position in intact phospholipids. In our method, the double bond(s) present in unsaturated phospholipids are cleaved by ozonolysis within the ion source of a conventional ESI mass spectrometer to give two chemically induced fragment ions that may be used to unambiguously assign the position of the double bond. This is achieved by using oxygen as the electrospray nebulizing gas in combination with high electrospray voltages to initiate the formation of an ozoneproducing.

Taxation determinations as de facto regulation : private equity exits in Australia

The Australian Taxation Office (AT)) attempted to challenge both the private equity fund reliance on double tax agreements and the assertion that profits were capital in nature in its dispute with private equity group TPG. Failure to resolve the dispute resulted in the ATO issuing two taxation determinations: TD 2010/20 which states that the general anti-avoidance provisions can apply to arrangements designed to alter the intended effect of Australia's international tax agreements net; and TD 2010/21 which states that the profits on the sale of shares in a company group acquired in a leveraged buyout is assessable income. The purpose of this article is to determine the effectiveness of the administrative rulings regime as a regulatory strategy. This article, by using the TPG-Myer scenario and subsequent tax determinations as a case study, collects qualitative data which is then analysed (and triangulated) using tonal and thematic analysis. Contemporaneous commentary of private equity stakeholders, tax professionals, and media observations are analysed and evaluated within a framework of responsive regulation and utilising the current ATO compliance model. Contrary to the stated purpose of the ATO rulings regime to alleviate complexities in Australian taxation law and provide certainty to taxpayers, and despite the de facto law status afforded these rulings, this study found that the majority of private equity stakeholders and their advisors perceived that greater uncertainty was created by the two determinations. Thus, this study found that in the context of private equity fund investors, a responsive regulation measure in the form of taxation determinations was not effective.

Continuing Bonds

Some of the oldest surviving examples of human creativity are items connected to death rituals. Despite the complexity of historical death rituals, the visceral sensations of grief are largely repressed or ignored in contemporary society – but where social ritual falters, art attempts to fill the gap. This catalogue essay was written to accompany Karike Ashworth's contemporary art exhibition, 'Lamentation', an exploration of grief, at The Hold Artspace in Brisbane.

Emotional experiences of preservice science teachers in online learning : the formation, disruption and maintenance of social bonds

The enactment of learning to become a science teacher in online mode is an emotionally charged experience. We attend to the formation, maintenance and disruption of social bonds experienced by online preservice science teachers as they shared their emotional online learning experiences through blogs, or e-motion diaries, in reaction to videos of face-to-face lessons. A multi-theoretic framework drawing on microsociological perspectives of emotion informed our hermeneutic interpretations of students’ first-person accounts reported through an e-motion diary. These accounts were analyzed through our own database of emotion labels constructed from the synthesis of existing literature on emotion across a range of fields of inquiry. Preservice science teachers felt included in the face-to-face group as they watched videos of classroom transactions. The strength of these feelings of social solidarity were dependent on the quality of the video recording. E-motion diaries provided a resource for interactions focused on shared emotional experiences leading to formation of social bonds and the alleviation of feelings of fear, trepidation and anxiety about becoming science teachers. We offer implications to inform practitioners who wish to improve feelings of inclusion amongst their online learners in science education.

The Role of the G20 in Taxation Regulation

This chapter explores the status of the current programs designed to address global tax avoidance, critiques the role that the G20 plays in the reform agenda, and considers the part that Australia will play in the process.