Commercial and Industrial Property Tax Reform The Victorian Government announced in the 2023-24 State Budget it will be progressively abolishing stamp duty on commercial and industrial property and replacing it with an annual tax, based on unimproved land value, called the Commercial and Industrial Property Tax ( the CIP Tax ). The CIP Tax regime will apply to commercial and industrial property transactions with both a contract and settlement date on or after 1 July 2024 .

During September 2023, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Support for Small Business and Charities and Other Measures) Bill 2023 ( the Bill ) was introduced to Parliament and has been thoroughly debated for the last six months. Last week, the Bill passed the Senate with some minor amendments proposed which need to be ratified by the House of Representatives before the Bill receives Royal assent. This Bill contains various small business tax measures, which include: A temporarily increase the instant asset write-off threshold for small and medium businesses from $1,000 to $30,000; Providing small and medium businesses with a bonus 20% deduction of the cost of eligible assets or improvements to existing assets that support electrification or more efficient energy use; and Limiting the amount of non-arm’s length income that arises relating to a general non-arm’s length expense and to narrow the application of these rules. We will discuss each of these small business tax measures in detail below.

2024 FBT Year End is Fast Approaching! The end of the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) year is fast approaching on 31 March 2024, so we take this opportunity to revisit some hot FBT topics for both employers and employees, including: FBT exemption for electric cars Work from home arrangements Contractor or employee Mismatched information for entertainment claimed as a deduction and what is reported for FBT purposes Employee contributions by journal entry Not lodging FBT returns Housekeeping essentials

Super contribution caps to rise The big news story for those contributing to super is that the contribution caps are set to increase from 1 July 2024 . The concessional contribution cap will increase from $27,500 to $30,000 . This 'CC' cap is broadly applicable to employer super guarantee contributions, personal deductible contributions and salary sacrificed contributions. The non-concessional contribution cap will increase from $110,000 to $120,000 . This 'NCC' cap is generally applicable to personal non-deductible contributions. The increase in the NCC cap also means that the maximum available under the three-year bring forward provisions will increase from $330,000 to $360,000 . This is provided that the 'bring forward' is triggered on or after 1 July 2024. The 'total superannuation balance' threshold for being able to make non-concessional contributions (and the pension general transfer balance cap) will remain at $1.9 million . We recently released a Tax Alert on this topic, to see full details click here .

Superannuation contribution caps to increase from 1 July 2024 The Federal Government has announced some key changes to the superannuation system that will take effect from 1 July 2024 . Key changes include an increase in the concessional and non-concessional contribution caps, the bring forward caps, and the total superannuation balance thresholds that apply to determine the maximum amount of bring forward non-concessional contributions available to members.