re: tax losses and the ato - [intent] In regards to tax...

re: tax losses and the ato - [intent]

In regards to tax considerations one must certainly rely on prior court cases to support their argument and "intent" is also quite a major consideration but tax loss selling is a generally accepted phenomena for market traders imho. As a market trader and regarded as such by the Tax dpt the timing of a sale is critical and this is one of the few great advantages we can can enjoy!! For a court to argue otherwise would be an impossible task as traders activities should be frequent in their operations anyway.

In regards to "tax evasion, avoidance or minimisation schemes" I must admit it has been of signficant interest to me. Any scheme which serves to reduce tax paid should be considered a threat as it can be legislated against at anytime. The latest being the split-loan arrangement where investors were capitilising the loan on the investment property and diverting all the rental monies to the home loan, thereby paying off the home loan in 5 years rather than 20 and claiming the deduction on the investment propertys loan!!

This scheme was actually promoted by the media until the govt did an about face!! The govt will suit itself if it sees a major threat to its revenue base. Many schemes that involve politicians will always be protected so don't expect negative gearing on housing to be scrapped overnight.

I have seen countless people by the way lose money on schemes actually approved by the Tax dpt but retrospectively changed so it could recoup all the lost taxes. This occured quite vidly where the tax dpt did a complete reversal on agricultural schemes. The govt was alerted to a phenomenal increase (threefold) in deductions that it simply targeted the schemes and swiftly brought them to a conclusion seeking all foregone taxes plus penalties!!!