Newsletter
October 2013 Newsletter
Departure from private ruling results in FBT assessments
The AAT has held that the Tax Commissioner was no longer bound by a private binding ruling that he had issued to a taxpayer company, because the taxpayer had implemented the scheme differently to the private ruling. As a result that the Commissioner was authorised to issue the taxpayer with fringe benefits tax (FBT) assessments for the relevant years.
Broadly, the private ruling provided that there would be no housing fringe benefit in relation to a home that was half-owned by the company (with the other half owned by a couple, who were also the directors of the company) on the basis that the business use of the home was 50%. However, the AAT considered that, in fact, less than 50% of the home had a "business use", and therefore the private ruling was not longer binding.