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Taxation Law II BLAW30003 Credit points:

12.5pts

Availability:

Semester 1, 2021

Timetable:

Please refer to your student timetable for your class schedule for this subject: https://my.unimelb.edu.au/

Subject Coordinator: Professor Sunita Jogarajan [email protected]

THIS COMPILATION OF STUDENT READING MATERIAL HAS BEEN MADE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF PART VB OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT FOR THE TEACHING PURPOSES OF THE UNIVERSITY. FOR USE ONLY BY THE YOU OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE ENROLLED IN THE SUBJECT: Taxation Law II – BLAW30003

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Melbourne Law School acknowledges the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nations as the Traditional Owners and custodians of the land on which the Law School stands. We pay our respects to their Elders both past and present.

BLAW30003 Taxation Law II: 2021 Subject Outline & Reading Guide

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Welcome to Taxation Law II This subject outline provides you with essential administrative information regarding the subject. Please read all of the information closely.

Contents 1

Subject information .......................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Overview .................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 General enquiries ..................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Subject Experience Surveys (SES)............................................................................. 4 1.4 Critical Dates ............................................................................................................ 4 2 Teaching staff.................................................................................................................... 5 3 Classes............................................................................................................................... 6 3.1 Video Lectures.......................................................................................................... 6 3.2 Tutorials ................................................................................................................... 6 3.2.1 Changing tutorial groups ..................................................................................... 6 4 Assessment ....................................................................................................................... 7 4.1 Online quizzes (2 x 20% each) .................................................................................. 7 4.2 Final exam (60%) ...................................................................................................... 7 4.2.1 Exam preparation hints ....................................................................................... 7 4.3 Academic integrity and honesty .............................................................................. 8 5 Tips on answering hypothetical questions ....................................................................... 9 6 Feedback ......................................................................................................................... 10 7 Required materials ......................................................................................................... 11 7.1 Subject page ........................................................................................................... 11 7.2 Textbook ................................................................................................................ 11 7.3 Concise legislation .................................................................................................. 11 8 Additional resources....................................................................................................... 12 8.1 Legal academic skills .............................................................................................. 12 8.2 Primary sources...................................................................................................... 12 8.3 Textbooks ............................................................................................................... 12 9 Syllabus ........................................................................................................................... 13 9.1 Topic 1: Tax Treatment of Different Business Structures (Weeks 1 and 2) ........... 13 9.2 Topic 2: Tax Agent Responsibilities and Regulation (Week 3) ............................... 13 9.3 Topic 3: Tax Timing (Week 4) ................................................................................. 14 9.4 Topic 4: Tax Aspects of Superannuation (Week 6) ................................................ 14 9.5 Topic 5: Tax Avoidance (Week 7) ........................................................................... 14 9.6 Topic 6: International Taxation (Weeks 8 and 9) ................................................... 15 9.7 Topic 7: Advanced Tax Administration (Week 10) ................................................. 15 9.8 Topic 8: State Taxes (Week 11) .............................................................................. 16 10 Schedule.......................................................................................................................... 17

BLAW30003 Taxation Law II: 2021 Subject Outline & Reading Guide

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1 1.1

Subject information Overview

This course advances students’ understanding of Australian taxation law. It is targeted at students interested in expanding their knowledge of taxation law following completion of an introductory course, and those students considering working as tax practitioners. 1.2

General enquiries

General enquiries should be directed to the Academic Support Office (ASO) at [email protected]. The ASO will respond to your enquiry directly or forward it to the appropriate staff member. 1.3

Subject Experience Surveys (SES)

The SES plays an important role in the University’s quality improvement process for teaching and subject development. In response to the feedback we received from students who completed the SES for this subject in previous years, we have made several revisions to the course, including:   1.4

revising the assessment in the subject to remove the written assignment and introduce two multiple choice quizzes, and restructured the course to provide a better ‘flow’ of topics. Critical Dates

There are 2 crucial dates relating to withdrawing from a subject: Census Date, and Last date to Withdraw without fail. These dates can be viewed in the handbook entry for each subject. You can withdraw from a subject up to the Census date and not be financially liable for that subject. You can also withdraw between “Census date” and “Last date to Withdraw without fail”, however in this case you are financially liable for the subject and it will appear on your transcript with a result of WD (no grade is attributed to a WD result, meaning it will not affect your overall GPA).

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2

Teaching staff

The subject coordinator and lecturer in this subject is Professor Sunita Jogarajan. She can be contacted at: [email protected]. Please use the ‘Online Tutor’ link on the LMS to ask any questions (administrative or contentrelated). In addition, face-to-face consultations will be available via Zoom by appointment. Please ask specific questions at consultations or via the Online Tutor. Consultations and the Online Tutor are not intended to re-teach material or take the place of tutorial discussion.

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Classes

3.1

Video Lectures

You are required to watch several videos each week approximating to 1 two-hour lecture each week. The video lectures will be made available via the LMS progressively throughout the semester. 3.2

Tutorials

In addition to watching the video lectures, you must also attend 1 x 1-hour Zoom tutorial each week. Please refer to your timetable (available via the student portal https://my.unimelb.edu.au/) for your tutorial details. You MUST attend the tutorial in which you are enrolled. Tutorials will commence in week 2 and will continue every week until week 12. Tutorials will not be recorded, and you should not record the tutorials via personal recording devices or any other medium. The tutorial questions will be made available on the subject page in the week before the relevant tutorial. The tutorials are intended to be discussion based and you are expected to have prepared answers to the prescribed questions prior to class. Note that formal answers to the tutorial questions will not be provided. Tutorial questions generally revolve around a hypothetical set of facts and you are evaluated on the arguments made, based on the relevant law, in relation to those facts. There is no pre-determined answer and outcomes will depend on the arguments made. Students who fail to attend tutorials regularly are at a severe disadvantage in preparing for the exam, as the tutorials teach vital skills and reinforce the material from the lectures. The tutorials provide important feedback to you about your progress. 3.2.1

Changing tutorial groups

To ensure uniformity of tutorial group sizes, once classes have been fixed, movement between the tutorial groups is generally not possible. You must NOT contact any of the teaching staff if you want to change tutorial groups. After class registration has closed (usually at the end of week two), you will only be allowed to change tutorial groups if there are exceptional circumstances. Please complete a Class Registration Enquiry form with your request to change tutorial groups.

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Assessment

The assessment in this subject is outlined below. You should note that all aspects of assessment are compulsory. 4.1

Online quizzes (2 x 20% each)

You are required to complete 2 online quizzes during Weeks 5 and 10. The exact timing details for each quiz will be provided via the LMS. The quizzes will also be made available via the LMS. The quizzes will be conducted under a strict time limit within a broader time limit window (i.e. the quizzes are to be completed within a strict time limit of 1-hour but can be completed any time within a 24-hour period). Quiz 1 will cover Topics 1 and 2. Quiz 2 will cover Topics 3 and 4. Please refer to Section 10 of this Course Outline for the subject syllabus. Please note that the quizzes must be done alone and without the assistance of your peers or other individuals. You are not permitted to discuss the questions and answers to a quiz with others, including after you have undertaken a quiz. You are not permitted to take screenshots or record questions in any way. Collusion is regarded as academic misconduct and is taken very seriously by the University and is punished accordingly. The LMS software contains inbuilt capabilities to detect collusion (including detecting students taking the test together). Please ensure that you take the quiz on a reliable computer with reliable internet access (not a tablet or phone device, as the LMS is not optimised for use on these devices). Computer malfunction or internet disruption are not usually grounds for special consideration. You must undertake the quiz on a computer which has English as its default language: the quiz is not optimised for computers/internet browsers that display in other characters. 4.2

Final exam (60%)

The final exam is a 2.25-hour, open-book exam and will be held during the University’s examination period (7 June 2021 – 25 June 2021). The final exam is not a hurdle requirement in this subject, i.e., you do not have to pass the exam to pass the subject. 4.2.1

Exam preparation hints

Many students are unfamiliar with ‘open book’ exams. Proper preparation before the exam makes the difference between success and failure. In particular, it is a mistake to assume that you will have time in the exam to read through your notes and find answers. At most, you should be aiming to check information in your notes during the exam. Towards the end of the subject, you should have the notes that you have made in the lectures, before and during your tutorials, and from the textbook. It is a useful exercise to consolidate these notes during the final weeks before the exam and prepare summaries from them. The compilation of the note summaries gives an overview of the subject and requires an understanding of the important legal issues likely to appear on the exam. Developing your own notes based on your reading and classes is an important part of your learning. You should rely on the materials provided to you by your lecturer for the subject, both in classes and through reading that is assigned to prepare you for classes and assessment BLAW30003 Taxation Law II: 2021 Subject Outline & Reading Guide

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tasks. Students who rely on notes other than their own deny themselves the opportunity to develop their learning through the preparation of their own notes, and potentially put themselves at risk of losing marks due to reliance on notes that are outdated or wrong. 4.3

Academic integrity and honesty

The University expects the highest ethical standards from you in your academic work. Plagiarism and/or collusion are regarded as academic misconduct. Plagiarism includes using the words of others without proper acknowledgment, as well as using work you have previously written and submitted for assessment (self-plagiarism). Electronic submission via the subject page incorporates the use of the web-based online plagiarism detection system, Turnitin. Turnitin compares electronically submitted papers to billions of pages of content located on the Internet and proprietary databases. It also compares each student’s answer with the answers submitted by other students. Collusion includes working on an assessment task with another person and submitting the joint work as your own work. You are not permitted to discuss the assignment question or quiz questions with other students. All research and written work must be your own. Important information about academic integrity, including advice to students and university policies, is located at http://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/. You should read the Declaration on the Assessment Coversheet carefully prior to submitting your assignment. Work submitted to this subject will be subject to TurnitIn. TurnitIn is an online, web-based software that works by comparing electronically submitted papers to billions of pages of content located on the internet and proprietary databases as well as the work of all students whose papers have also been submitted into the system.

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Tips on answering hypothetical questions

1.

There are many methods for answering hypothetical problems and there is no ‘accepted method’ but perhaps the most common is the ‘IRAC Method’. IRAC stands for: Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion. These elements must all be present in your answer to any hypothetical legal question. But you do NOT need to separate your discussion into these parts or include them as headings. Your answer will be better if you combine them together.

2.

Don’t waste precious words in the assignment, or precious time in the exam, repeating the facts. It is not wrong to do so but repeating the facts does not earn you any marks. Just pick out the words that show that you have spotted the issue, and then get on with the other parts of the answer. The facts will appear throughout your answer as you apply the law to the circumstances of the case.

3.

Headings are good and remind you of what you are talking about. They help you structure your answer properly.

4.

When using a case, do no restate the facts from the case unless it is directly on point or you are trying to distinguish your fact scenario from the facts in the case. Instead, apply the legal principle which was established in the case to the facts that you are working with to construct your argument accordingly, and, ultimately, address the question.

5.

Formal legal citation of legislation and cases is not required. Citation of cases and legislation should be in the text of your answer in brackets. For example, Scott (1935); s 6-5 ITAA97. Do not use footnotes in your answer. A bibliography is not required.

6.

There are differences between writing assignments and writing an exam. In the exam, you can abbreviate words more and we do not expect your answer to be so carefully expressed. In the assignment, take care with your structure and expression. If you have difficulty with English, that is not a problem. Write short and simple sentences. The important thing is to get your meaning across clearly.

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Feedback

Students often enquire about the opportunity to receive feedback in this subject prior to the final exam. Some mechanisms which have already been discussed in this Subject Outline include:    

weekly tutorial discussions, ability to have questions answered by a member of the teaching staff via the Online Tutor, feedback on assessed online quizzes, face-to-face consultations with the subject coordinator.

In addition to the above feedback mechanisms, you have the opportunity (and are expected) to complete a series of multiple-choice questions (separate to the Online Quizzes) in relation to each topic covered in the subject (available through the subject page). These questions are designed to guide your reading for the subject and test your understanding of the fundamentals of each topic. Feedback on your answers will be provided through the online system. These multiple-choice questions are different to the Online Quizzes and are a nonassessable component of the subject, i.e., they do not contribute to your final mark in the subject. These questions are provided as a learning tool and an opportunity for you to obtain additional feedback. Further opportunities to receive feedback include:  

Feedback lecture held at the end of semester; and Feedback session held during swot vac.

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Required materials

The following materials are essential for this subject and you must have access to all material: 7.1

Subject page

The subject page is very important in this subject and you are expected to access the subject page on a regular basis (at least once a week) throughout the semester. The subject page can be accessed through the University’s Learning Management System at https://canvas.lms.unimelb.edu.au. You are required to access lecture slides, tutorial questions, and the online quizzes from the subject page. This material will be published on the subject page progressively throughout the semester. The subject page will also be used to publish announcements to you, useful links and any additional informat...