ATO

Two units of Queensland real estate firm Coronis have lost a fight with the tax office over service fee deductions claimed for payments to related entities for the use of the Coronis trade mark, among other trust assets.

Fresh off a record settlement for the Robodebt scandal, the government is facing a new class action over a law that retroactively allowed it to impose card payment surcharges, which the suit says amounts to unjust enrichment.

The tax commissioner has suffered a major loss in a dispute with Malaysian power company YTL Power over a $948 million capital gain from the sale of its stake in South Australia-based ElectraNet in 2022.

Software giant Oracle has won its bid to stay a $252 million fight with ATO over royalties, with the Full Federal Court finding the cases would not provide guidance in 15 other software disputes about the operation of the royalty tax. 

A judge has refused to join the ATO as an interested party to a case over the receivership of investment platform Brite Advisors, after the receivers worried they could be on the hook for $75.4 million in capital gains tax. 

A judge has ordered federal prosecutors to drop a criminal tax fraud case against a medical researcher, finding an ATO officer lied and tampered with evidence during the probe.

In a major loss for the Australian Taxation Office, a High Court majority has found an agreement between US soft drink giant PepsiCo and Schweppes Australia to sell brands such as Pepsi and Mountain Dew in Australia was not subject to a royalty withholding tax.

A former EY partner accused of promoting a tax loss scheme has hit back at the ATO’s case on the first day of trial, saying he gave objective advice and the case is an overreach.

A Sydney accountant who was jailed in 2019 for perverting the course of justice has lost his latest battle with the tax office, with a judge tossing four taxation appeals by related entities after finding his evidence about over $21 million in wrongly claimed tax deductions was “entirely lacking in credibility”.

A liquidator has opened his case over the alleged misuse of funds by now defunct Dyldam Developments, as the court hears of “oddities” in financial records and the spaghetti-like structure of 157 interrelated entities.