Business structures
The structure you operate under decides your marginal rate, your asset protection, and how much paperwork you face. A Pty Ltd that qualifies as a pays 25%; loans back to shareholders pull into the picture. Trusts open up income splitting but bring s.100A risk.
Case law that shapes structure choice
Bywater Investments Ltd v FCT [2016] HCA 45 — corporate tax residency turns on where central management and control is actually exercised, not where a Pty Ltd is registered or where its directors formally sit. Decisive for groups with offshore directors.
CFMMEU v Personnel Contracting Pty Ltd [2022] HCA 1; ZG Operations v Jamsek [2022] HCA 2 — contractor vs employee classification turns principally on the rights and obligations in the written contract. Engaging workers through a trust or Pty Ltd does not change the analysis; the contract does.
Eichmann v FCT [2020] FCAFC 155 — active asset test in s 152-40(1)(a) ITAA 1997 read broadly; relevant when selling a business held through a structure.
Aussiegolfa Pty Ltd v FCT [2018] FCAFC 122 — where an SMSF sits inside the structure stack, in-house asset rules and the sole purpose test remain the binding constraints regardless of how the related-trust layer is drawn.