This course provides an overview of Australian taxation law and tax law concepts. It serves as an introduction to common law tax concepts such as the role of discretionary trusts and the capital/revenue distinction common to almost all Anglo jurisdictions and contrasts those concepts with civil law understandings. It focuses on Australia's three most important Commonwealth taxes: goods and services tax (the Australian VAT), income tax, and fringe benefits tax and examines all three in in the context of similarities and differences between common law and civil law tax concepts and principles. It considers, for example, the Australian company and shareholder imputation system in contrast to the former European imputation systems and current classical system and contrasts the Australian and other modern VAT systems with the traditional European VAT. It similarly compares the regime used in Australia (and several other countries) to tax employee fringe benefits with the system used in Europe and North America and the system used to tax retirement savings with the European and North American system. Key aspects of Australia's international tax rules are also examined in the course and the tax treaty issue that arise in relation to potential double taxation of retirement savings, fringe benefits, and other types of income subject to different tax rules in Australia and its treaty partners.

Topics are set out as follows:

• Tax Principles and Drafting
• Tax Expenditures
• Transplanted Categories
• Assessable Income
• Capital Gains
• Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT)
• General Deductions
• Specific Deductions
• Current And Capital Expenses
• Taxation of Financial Arrangements (TOFA)
• Tax Offsets
• Investment and Business Entities
• Partnerships and Partners
• Trusts And Beneficiaries
• Company And Shareholder Tax
• The International Tax Regime
• General Anti-Avoidance Regime (GAAR)
• Goods and Services Tax (GST)

> 70% attendance requirement

Interactive lectures. 

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