On 1 March 2012, the Assistant Treasurer announced that the Government would introduce amendments to the general anti-avoidance rule in Part IVA to ensure that recent arguments advanced by taxpayers “will no longer be successful”. The amendments which might ultimately be made are proposed to be retrospective, operating from 1 March 2012, notwithstanding that the nature of the amendments is unknown.
This paper considers:
- the current operation of Part IVA
- the recent cases referred to by the Assistant Treasurer
- the potential amendments which might be introduced.