The High Court has ruled that a liquidator has no obligation to retain monies on account of tax until a notice of assessment has been issued The decision will provide much needed clarity for liquidators and other statutorily deemed trustees and agents Partners Charles Armitage and Christopher ...

The release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement has renewed the debate about the ability of foreign investors to sue governments under investor-State dispute settlement mechanisms which are commonly part of international trade agreements or investment treaties between States ...

The Board of Taxations report on tax arrangements applying to collective investment vehicles considers that offshore investors are dissuaded from investing in Australian funds because they do not understand unit trusts and that access to a broader range of collective investment vehicles would help ...

You might be getting tired of all of the talk about innovation and keen to see some of it actually happen The Governments recent announcements could help but there is a long way to go before the mining boom becomes the ideas boom ...

The FSI report recommended that the Government facilitate rationalisation of legacy products in the life insurance and managed investment scheme industries The need for ways to close legacy products has been kicking around for at least a decade and in 2007 Treasury released a very thorough options ...

Are you interested in the financial system and how it is regulated The Federal Governments response to the Financial System Inquiry was recently handed down but it can be hard to work out where exactly things are heading We have put together a table that sets out what is likely to happen and when ...

The Government released yesterday an exposure draft of the Corporations Amendment Life Insurance Remuneration Arrangements Bill 2015 The Government says the Bill removes the current exemption in the Corporations Act from the ban on conflicted remuneration for benefits paid in relation to certain ...

The new package of legislation overhauling Australias foreign investment laws the first major revision in 40 years commenced on 1 December 2015 While many features of the previous regime have been retained and sometimes re-named there are also a number of significant changes Partners Jeremy Low ...

The Governments Future of Financial Advice Bill was passed by the Senate yesterday While the Bill began its life as the so-called Streamlining Bill introduced by the Government on 19 March 2014 the Bill as passed yesterday bears very little resemblance to the Bill as originally introduced It is ...

The highest appellate court in the UK has affirmed and restated the penalty rule as it applies in the UK in a recent decision that directly addresses and counters the High Court of Australias approach to the rule in Andrews Partner Nick Rudge and Lawyer Patrick Easton report ...