Last week I attended the third NTLG meeting of 2012 along with our President Ken Schurgott CTA and our Vice-President Steve Westaway CTA. As always, the agenda was varied and focussed on continuing our high-level engagement with the ATO on a range of systems and technical matters.

An area of significant focus was the ATO's trustee compliance project. This project followed a sustained education campaign by the ATO and the professional bodies (including The Tax Institute) and sought to review trustee compliance with the requirement to create present entitlement to trust income by 30 June.

The ATO reported positive results from the review: the overwhelming majority of trustees reviewed had complied with the requirements of the current Division 6. We will of course continue to support our members via our ongoing education activities in this space, in recognition of the delay in the application date of the revised taxation of trusts regime until 1 July 2014.

Also discussed at the meeting was the ATO's staffing capability in the context of the public service-wide efficiency dividend. We also had an opportunity to farewell Second Commissioner Jennie Granger as she heads off to the UK to commence her new role with the HMRC.

We of course wish Jennie the very best in this new role and thank her for her contributions to and engagement with The Tax Institute over the years.

Robert Jeremenko

Robert Jeremenko CTA is Senior Tax Counsel of The Tax Institute.

The Tax Institute is Australia’s leading professional association in tax. Its 13,000 members include tax agents, accountants and lawyers as well as tax practitioners in corporations, government and academia.