ARTICLE · 28 JANUARY 2012

Distribution clarity? Round 3

Greenwoods & Freehills

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This tax brief discusses the December ATO draft ruling and the associated legal opinion.

AustraliaTax

Joshua Cardwell

Richard Hendriks

On 21 December 2011 the ATO released TR 2011/D8 dealing with the relationship of the new corporate law rule for dividends and the tax legislation, along with counsel's legal opinion it has obtained as part of the process. Unfortunately the draft ruling creates as many uncertainties as it solves. This tax brief discusses the draft ruling and the associated legal opinion. We have discussed the development of these issues in two recent tax briefs, see http://www.gf.com.au/TB_ATOContinuesTheDistributionConfusion.pdf and http://www.gf.com.au/20111207TaxBrief_Distribution.pdf, so we keep the discussion here brief.

Counsel's opinion

Many issues are canvassed in the opinion but the four most interesting points are as follows:

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