Australian Tax Office announcement a win for Retirement Living

Australian Tax Office announcement a win for Retirement LivingThe Australian Tax Office (ATO) has announced that it will overturn its approach to deductibility of capital gain payments to residents, after successful representations by the Retirement Living Council (RLC) and, before that, the Retirement Village Association (RVA). The ATO now accepts that such payments are deductible, and it will amend a previous public taxation ruling (paragraph of TR 2002/14) accordingly. This is outlined in a Decision Impact Statement (DIS) issued yesterday, relating to a 2013 Administrative Appeals Tribunal case, titled ‘Retirement Village Operator’. You can read the DIS here. The DIS also outlines how to ask the Commissioner to amend an assessment as a result of the change.The ATO is seeking feedback on the DIS. The RLC’s Tax Committee, which meets on a regular basis to discuss tax issues in the sector, is determining what feedback to provide – including clarification of how many years back operators can now seek amended tax assessments for.This is a huge win for the sector, and a hard fought battle over many years.