The form of the government’s “new” Part IVA is now known and it also appears that there will be a renewed focus by the ATO on the possible application of PartIVA to transactions undertaken by SMEs that have regard to the tax outcomes. It will be critical for advisers to understand the changes and factor them into the advice provided.
This paper examines:
- do the amendments reflect a change in the policy of Part IVA and specifically, does the dominant purpose test remain untouched?
- the operation and impact of the introduced “tax effects” element resulting in a new approach to assessing the “alternative postulates”
- does the alternative postulate need to be reasonable any longer?
- what is happening to the concept of “scheme”?
- the key issues to consider when providing tax structuring advice.