$60 billion in trust payments under cloud following ATO court loss

Payments of around $60 billion from family trusts are under renewed legal scrutiny as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) considers whether to appeal its defeat in a landmark decision about tax avoidance.

A decision on March 8 by the Full Court of the Federal Court upheld that financial strategies involving trusts which merely result in the payment of less tax are not evidence on their own of a dominant purpose of tax avoidance.