General
Main residence and foreign residents
The Treasury Laws Amendment (Reducing Pressure on Housing Affordability Measures No. 2) Bill 2018 which lapsed on the calling of the Federal election, was reintroduced into the House of Reps on 23 October 2019 (with slightly changed name) – with one major amendment.
Interest deductibility
A new ruling has been released by the ATO on the deductibility or otherwise of penalty interest. Ruling TR 2019/2 replaces an earlier ruling on the same topic that has since been withdrawn (TR 93/7W), and spells out the circumstances when penalty interest is generally deductible and the situations where this is not the case.
Where’s my BAS refund?
Statistics supplied by the ATO indicate that most GST refund claims (98% of them according to its data) are processed without any problem, but the ATO also says that every year it will select a small proportion of BAS refunds and temporarily hold onto them to check the accuracy of the information provided.