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Cridland v Federal Commissioner of Taxation was a 1977 High Court of Australia case concerning a novel tax scheme whereby some 5,000 university students became primary producers (as in farmers) for tax purposes, allowing them certain income averaging benefits. The Australian Taxation Office held this was tax avoidance, but the test case was decided in favour of the taxpayer, one of the students, Brian Cridland. In the taxonomy of tax schemes, this one was in the category of a wholly intentional tax benefit but which people other than those intended came to access. Amendments tightening the definition of a primary producer were subsequently made, so such a scheme would fail today. == Scheme == In 1968, Brisbane accountant D. P. O'Shea was a partner in the firm Fadden and O'Shea and was, as the court said, "versed in the arts of tax minimization". He hit upon a scheme to access the income averaging provisions of division 16 of the ''Income Tax Assessment Act 1936'' (ITAA). Income averaging allowed a taxpayer to spread income over multiple tax years and was meant for primary producers (farmers etc.) with highly variable incomes. Section 157 provided that if a trust is carrying on a business of primary production, then all the income beneficiaries are likewise considered carrying on such a business. O'Shea had one of his companies acquire land and lease (or otherwise grant) use of that to newly formed unit trusts. Those trusts were to acquire livestock or similar so as to carry on a business of primary production. The money for all this was lent by O'Shea or associates and the trusts were to end after 21 years, at which point all assets reverted to him or associates. The actual assets and production, it seems, were to be small, and in any case remain effectively under O'Shea's control. In 1969 O'Shea distributed pamphlets advertising his scheme at universities in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Students were to pay a nominal sum of $1 to join. Over 5,000 responded and became beneficiaries of the No. 1 trust. Brian Cridland, the subject of the court action, was a student at the University of Queensland nearing the end of his engineering degree course. He became a beneficiary of the No. 2 trust and then in 1970 was transferred to the No. 4 trust when the No. 2 ceased operation. The payment of $1 each was not meant to make a profit for O'Shea and associates, in fact it was seldom collected. The trust deeds allowed the trustee to register a person if the trustee was satisfied the person had donated at least $1 either to an institution under section 78 of the ITAA (various museums, cultural funds, etc.), or to a similar body approved by a university Student Representative Council. O'Shea even made a $500 payment to a section 78 body himself to cover anyone who might fail to have a documented payment themselves (and therefore might have failed to meet the formal requirements of the scheme). Any income actually earned by the trusts would, or would not be, distributed to some or all beneficiaries entirely at the discretion of the trustee. Beneficiaries were not actually going to receive income, or nothing significant, just be "presently entitled" to satisfy section 157. Cridland for instance said to the court he didn't expect any income, he did receive $1 in each of June 1969, 1970 and 1971 though. The pamphlets described an annual payment of $50 to be made by subscribers, but only if and when they saved at least that much tax. It also pointed out there was no way anyone could be forced to make such a payment, it would rely on the honesty of participants. No such amounts were actually paid. It seems O'Shea made no profit from the scheme. Presumably if he was creating a scheme for himself anyway then it cost little to let others join, and perhaps the scheme brought other business for his accounting firm. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cridland v Federal Commissioner of Taxation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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