Newsletter
March 2014 Newsletter
Daughter found to be puppet director of company trustee
A married couple has been successful before the AAT in a matter concerning access to the capital gains tax concessions for small businesses. The key issue in dispute concerned a trust (in respect of which the couple were beneficiaries) and the trust’s entitlement to the concessions in connection with a capital gain made on the sale of assets by the trust in the 2008 income year. Specifically, the main issue was whether the trust was controlled, either alone or with others, by the couple’s daughter.
The Commissioner argued that the daughter was a controller of the trust and that, therefore, the trust was connected with other entities controlled by the daughter, with the result that the trust breached the eligibility requirements for any of the capital gains tax concessions sought by the couple. However, the AAT found that the husband alone was the person who controlled the trust for the purposes of the small business concessions. Therefore, entities connected with the daughter, who was found to be a mere "puppet director" of the company trustee, did not have to be taken into account in determining the trust's entitlement to the concessions claimed by the couple.
In finding that the husband alone controlled the trust, the AAT noted, among other things, that the trust was not accustomed to acting in accordance with the daughter's wishes independently of her father's wishes in circumstances where her wishes and directions were actually her father's.
TIP: The tax law provides four concessions to reduce, eliminate and/or provide a roll-over for a capital gain made on an eligible asset that has been used in a small business. These concessions include the "15-year exemption", the "50% reduction", the "retirement exemption" and the "roll-over" concession.
The availability of the concessions is subject to satisfying a range of conditions, and these rules can be tricky to apply in practice – improperly claiming the concessions can have devastating consequences. Please contact our office for further information.