• R & D Tax Offset Abuse — The Tax Office has issued a Taxpayer Alert warning taxpayers of investment schemes that abuse the research and development tax offset. More.

• Deductions and Refinancing Home Loans — The Tax Office has issued a Taxpayer Alert describing sham arrangements that are promoted as ‘mortgage management plans’. More.

• Uncommercial Offshore Superannuation Trust — The Tax Office is scrutinising offshore trust structures masquerading as superannuation funds used by taxpayers to avoid tax on money shifted into Australia. More.

• Superannuation Funds and Illegal Early Release — The Tax Office has implemented steps to improve the self-managed superannuation fund registration process to prevent illegal early release of benefits. More.

• Excess Contributions Tax: Commissioner's Discretion — The Tax Office has provided guidance on whether the Commissioner will exercise his discretion to disregard excess non-concessional contributions. More.

• Payment from Transition-to-retirement Pensions — The Tax Office has also provided guidance on whether a payment from a transition-to-retirement pension can be taxed as a superannuation lump sum. More.

• No Deduction for Misappropriated Money — The Full Federal Court has held that a taxpayer was not entitled to a deduction for money misappropriated by his agent. More.

• FBT Audit and Compliance Activities — We include a summary of the FBT audit and compliance activities currently being undertaken by the Tax Office. More.

• GST: Decreasing Adjustment Note Threshold Increased — The GST decreasing adjustment note threshold will increase to $75 or less with effect from 1 July 2010. More.

• Goods Taken for Private Use — The Tax Office have released the reasonable amounts that they will accept as the value of goods taken from trading stock for private use for the 2009/10 income year. More.