WA Stamp Duty Implications of Business Acquisitions

Published on 09 Mar 2005 | Took place at City West Function Centre, West Perth, WA

Stamp duty is a major cost in undertaking business acquisitions. Proper tax advice requires a full understanding of the stamp duty consequences of transactions being advised upon. It has been just over a year since the implementation of the WA Business Tax Review (BTR) changes. The BTR amendments have had a significant impact on the stamp duty consequences of business acquisitions. The changes include:
- new provisions extending conveyance duty in certain circumstances to the transfer of "business assets" including intellectual property
- widening of conveyance base to include all goodwill transfers
- the narrowing of the circumstances where a transfer of chattels will not be subject to conveyance duty
- changes to the undocumented conveyance rules in section 31B
- the reduction of the land rich duty threshold from 80% to 60%.