GST and Property: The Tricky Issues in Practice - recorded online conference

You can put your staff in the boardroom and watch it there. You can watch it on your computer or on your portable electronic device. All for the same low price.

The conference will be based on our highly successful video webinar technology: there’ll be a chairperson, a panel of experts, presentations and discussion.

Session 1: GST Withholding on New Residential Property – War Stories and Lessons in Practice

It’s been just over seven months since the introduction of the GST withholding rules on new residential property on 1 July 2018. Now that the dust has settled on the initial implementation, what complexities and challenges are we seeing? This session covers tips and traps based on experience of how the provisions have operated in practice, including:

• In complex situations (e.g. multiple vendors, multiple purchasers or nominee purchasers):
  • Who is meant to notify?
  • Who is meant to withhold?
• Managing the GST compliance:
  • What are the key questions that you need to be asking your clients?
  • 5-year rule – has the property been used exclusively for rent?
  • Calculating the amount to withhold – what do you need from your client?
• Tips on managing logistical and technical issues relating to the ATO’s reporting system.
• How are property developers managing the cashflow issues?

Session 2: Sale of a Going Concern - Risk Management Checklist

The sale of a going concern raises significant compliance issues. A failure to get it right can lead to costly mistakes – and unhappy clients. This practical session provides an essential compliance checklist for gaining the GST exemption, including:

• When is it beneficial to acquire property as a going concern:

  • Impact of the leasing overlay

  • Unregistered vendors

• Supply of a going concern where there is one vendor and multiple purchasers, or multiple vendors and one purchaser

  • Creating a new lease interest – does this create any GST or transfer duty anti-avoidance concerns?

• Drafting the right GST provision in the sale contract

• GST clause for recovery of GST where going concern exemption does not apply

• Purchaser and vendor warranting they remain registered until time of completion

• Dealing with partly tenanted or vacant buildings

• Can a tenant of commercial property purchase that property as going concern?

• Can a corporate trustee of a fund satisfy the going concern exemption?

• Could you get caught by the reverse charge rules in Division 135?

• Case report – MSAUS Pty Ltd as Trustee for the Melissa Trust and Comm. Of Tax. [2017] AATA 1408

Session 3: Broadacre Developments: the GST Rules Are Easy, or are they?

Broadacre development generally involve residential real estate or new residential premises at some point, but the status of the land will change as the development progresses. And what is the position of the land owner as opposed to that of the developer? This presentation will examine the status of both the land and the supplier and how those changes will impact on GST liability. It covers:

• The farmer developer – can the farmer escape GST liability on the basis of no enterprise being carried on? Mere realisation etc.
• Is registration cancellation a pre-requisite
• Accidental tax law partnerships between landowner and developer – GST implications
• Developer acquiring the land – getting the primary production exemption
• Developer acquiring the land – is it residential real property or not?
• When does broadacre development land become residential land?
• House and land packages and the incidence of GST