Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2023 (Support for Small Business and Charities and Other Measures)
The bill to increase the instant asset write-off for small businesses for the 2023-24 income year from $1,000 to $20,000 has stalled in Parliament. While the Senate has recommended raising the write-off limit to $30,000 and making it available to businesses with a turnover under $50 million, the House of Representatives refused these changes. As the end of the year approaches quickly, small and medium businesses are still not sure about the instant asset write-off limit for this year.
The other issue that arises is that the bill also includes other measures that are also stalled, including:
- Small business energy incentive – the 2023-24 bonus tax deductions for the expense of qualified depreciating assets and enhancements that support electrification and more efficient energy use
- Non-arm’s length costs for SMSFs – the new regulations for non-arm’s length expenses for SMSFs.
Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2024 (Extension to the FBT Exemption for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles)
The FBT exemption is due to expire on 1 April 2025 for plug-in hybrid vehicles, liable to exceptions involving some pre-existing arrangements. A private member’s Bill has been presented that will extend the expiry of the FBT exemption for plug-in hybrid vehicles until 1 April 2030.
Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2023 (Tax Accountability and Fairness)
This Bill has been passed which primarily deals with the following areas:
Reform of promoter penalty laws
- Extending time, the ATO has to bring an application for civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia for breaches of promoter penalty laws from 4 to 6 years.
- Strengthening the penalties for breaching promoting penalty laws.
- Expanding the scope of the promoter penalty regime, including broadening specific definitions, to address challenges in its application.
Whistleblower protections
- Extending whistleblower safety for disclosures to the Commissioner or TPB to help the TPB perform its duties under the TAS Act.
- Ensuring information disclosures made to medical practitioners or psychologists can also be eligible for protection.
- Make sure that individuals claiming protection are responsible for providing evidence to support their claim.
- Tax Practitioners Board reform
- Updating the TAS Act allows the TAS regulations to mention the situations in which unregistered entities are likely to be included in the Register and to mention how long the information must be kept on the register.
- Extending the time period that the TPB has to finalise investigations into possible breaches of the TAS Act to 24 months from 6 months.
- Enabling the TPB to make a decision on whether to release information about the entity on the register after concluding the investigation and spotting a breach of the TAS Act.
- Information Sharing
- Enabling the ATO and TPB to share protected information with the Treasury in relation to misconduct arising out of breaches by intermediaries involving the Commonwealth for the purpose.
- Enabling the ATO and TPB to share protected information with prescribed disciplinary bodies where they believe an individual’s actions may have a breach of the prescribed disciplinary body’s code of conduct.
- Enabling treasury to share protected information with the Minister or Finance Minister about a breach and any proposed measure or action directed at dealing with such a breach.