Newsletter
August 2014 Newsletter
Winemaker not taxable on property sale
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has held that an individual taxpayer who was the controller of several trusts through which he operated a winemaking business, and who was also a beneficiary of the trusts, was not presently entitled to an amount of over $480,000 in profit that one of the trusts made from the sale of business premises.
The profit had been deposited into accounts which the taxpayer controlled for his personal benefit. The Commissioner had issued an assessment to include the profit in the taxpayer’s assessable income on the basis that the amount represented revenue profit of the trust and that, as a beneficiary of the trust, the individual was presently entitled to the amount under certain rules concerning the tax treatment of trust income. However, the AAT did not agree with the Commissioner’s decision.
It concluded that another of the trusts (of which the taxpayer was trustee) was beneficially entitled to the profit as a beneficiary of the trust that made the profit from the sale, and not the taxpayer in his personal capacity.