Contracts

A promise to provide a service can be a GST taxable supply

Commissioner of Taxation v Qantas Airways Ltd

For many people, making a reservation for air travel is as simple as logging in to an airline’s website and choosing the flight that suits their needs. But how many people actually understand (or, for that matter, read) the terms and conditions associated with their reservation; does the average person know what they are buying when they enter their credit card details at the end of the transaction? One might assume that the airline, in accepting a booking, is making a promise to carry the passenger and baggage on a particular flight.

However, the High Court, in delivering its recent decision in Commissioner of Taxation v Qantas Airways Limited, determined that Qantas’s terms and conditions actually promised something less. continue reading

GST and the Supply of a “Going Concern”

The sale of a business may be a supply of a going concern and therefore GST-free.  The concession can assist in providing cash-flow and stamp duty savings to purchasers of businesses.

The cash-flow benefit is the saving to the purchaser in not having to fund the GST payable on the purchase price of the business (although in most cases this GST would be recoverable as a GST input tax credit in a subsequent BAS). The stamp duty benefit of the concession is that duty is calculated on the sale price without GST. continue reading