Managing Property and Security Issues for Rural Clients - recorded half-day online conference

Duration: 3 hours

RECORD

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: Tax Implications of Buying, Holding and Transferring Rural Property

The government provides a number of tax incentives to those engaged in the business of primary production to help enable them to stay on the land. However, there are a number of ways farmers can trip up and cause unexpected tax consequences when dealing with rural property. This session will look at the particular tax implications faced by primary producers when they buy, hold or transfer rural property:

• The general tax concessions applying to primary producers who buy, hold or transfer property, including:

  • stamp duty implications of buying stock and other equipment with the land

  • applying the partial main residence exemption when selling the family farm

  • when will farmland be GST-free?

• The rise of farm stays and cabins – managing potential loss of primary production exemptions by farmers with alternative lines of income

• When things go wrong – the tax implications of managing disputes between warring family members who want to exit the family farm

Session 2: PPSA and Primary Producers: Personal Property Securities Over Agricultural Assets

It is important for farmers and their legal advisers to understand who may claim over farm assets used as security and how that claim is enforced. Many of those assets are not real property so securities over them are governed by the personal property securities (PPS) law. This session examines the key issues, including:

• Categories of agricultural assets used as personal property securities

• Risks associated with delaying registration on the personal property security register

• Leasing arrangements and personal property security risk

• Retention of title clauses on supply contracts - the need to register interest

• Consequences of not having valid registration of security interest

• The importance of timing of registration

• Relationship between security interest in crops and interests in land – s84 PPSA

• Crops and livestock as personal property security – Priority issues s85 86 PPSA

Session 3: Funding the Farm – Advising your Client on Legal Aspects of Finance and Debt

Finding safe and reliable finance is a problem many farmers face. It is fundamental to a farm surviving, growing productively and accessing new equipment and technology. This session looks at the current issues faced by farmers when seeking finance and managing debt:

• Borrowing the money:

  • what financiers typically expect in terms of documents and security (post royal commission)

  • market practice and what is required of lawyers/advisers

  • important issues to advise on – covenants, reporting obligations, negative pledges/restrictions

  • dealing with family groups and advising guarantors

• During the term of the loan:

  • dealings that require financier’s consent

  • potential events of default

  • the importance of communication

  • things we are often seeing – wind and solar projects on Rural land etc

• When things go bad:

  • dealing with events of default

  • workouts and enforcement

  • farm Debt Mediation

  • forbearance arrangements