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Beware of artificial trust arrangements to avoid tax - 28th October 2013

The ATO has issued an alert to warn taxpayers that it is aware of arrangements where a discretionary trust is used to effectively funnel large capital gains to a newly incorporated company that is then wound up to avoid paying taxes.

The ATO says these arrangements concern situations where a trust has generated a small amount of income and a large capital gain during the year. The trust then distributes funds generated by the capital gain, tax free, to one beneficiary, while the newly incorporated company receives the tax liability, but does not have the funds to pay the tax. A liquidator is then appointed to wind up the company.

The ATO says such arrangements may be shams and those involved could face serious consequences under the tax law.



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