The Australian Tax Office has announced a crackdown on self-managed super fund advisers who offer overseas holidays as a lure for property purchases.
“We are getting quite interested in arrangements involving holiday travel claimed as investment expenses by SMSF trustees,” ATO assistant commissioner Matthew Bambrick says.
“We put information about avoidance schemes on the tax planning part of our website. Recognising, rejecting and reporting suspect tax schemes is part of good citizenship.”
Network Ten has posted a massive full-year loss of $285 million for financial year 2012/13, down on its $12.9 million loss a year earlier.
The company has blamed asset writedowns and a fall in advertising revenue for the loss, with the company opting not to pay shareholders a dividend this year.
“Ten continues to be strongly supported by its major shareholders, who believe in Ten’s turnaround and are supportive of Ten management’s vision for the company,” chief executive Hamish McLennan says.
US President Barack Obama has officially signed legislation raising the Treasury Department’s debt limit and ending the government shutdown.
Under the legislation, lawmakers will enter long-term budget negotiations, with their first recommendations due on December 13.
“I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again … I am eager to work with anybody – Democrat or Republican, House or Senate members – on any idea that will grow our economy, create new jobs, strengthen the middle class and get our fiscal house in order for the long-term,” Obama says.
“My hope and expectation [is that] everybody has learned that there’s no reason why we can’t work on the issues at hand, why we can’t disagree between the parties whilst still being agreeable.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.01% to 15371.65. The Aussie dollar is up to US96.34 cents.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
