LEGL300 - Taxation Law

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

LEGL101 Introduction to Business Law: Legal Frameworks for Businesses

Teaching organisation

150 hours over a twelve-week semester or equivalent study period

Unit rationale, description and aim

Taxation plays an important role for governments in collecting and utilising revenues to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of no poverty (SDG 1), good health and wellbeing (SDG 3), quality education (SDG 4), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), and industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG 9). Taxation supports the Catholic Social Thoughts (CST) of common good by contributing to the wellbeing of people through utilisation of government revenues for improvement of lives of people. It is important for business students (particularly, accounting and finance students) to learn taxation, as most income earning individuals and companies are subject to various types of tax. Moreover, taxation is interconnected to accounting and finance for wealth management. Against this backdrop the unit covers income tax, goods and services tax (GST), fringe benefits tax (FBT), and other relevant taxes (e.g., payroll tax). The aim of this unit is to understand and apply relevant taxation rules imposed by the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, the Goods and Services Tax Act 1999, the Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment Act 1986, Payroll Tax Act 2007, and the case laws and taxation rulings issued by the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Content

Topics will include:

·       Importance of tax and role of tax in SDG and CST

·       Australian taxation framework

·       Residency for tax purposes

·       Income and sources of income

·       Deductions (general and specific)

·       Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT)

·       Capital Gains Tax (CGT)

·       GST, pay as you go withholding (PAYGW), and business activity statements (BAS)

·       Individual taxation

·       Taxation of companies, taxation of trusts and taxation of partnerships

·       Overview of international tax issues

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

The teaching and learning strategy is built on a “student-focused approach”.  ACU’s teaching policy focuses on learning outcomes for students. Our teaching aims to engage students as active participants in the learning process while acknowledging that all learning must involve a complex interplay of active and receptive processes, the constructing of meaning for oneself, and learning from others. ACU promotes and facilitates learning that is autonomous and self-motivated, is characterised by the individual taking satisfaction in the mastering of content and skills and is critical, looking beneath the surface level of information for the meaning and significance of what is being studied.

The schedule of the workshop is designed in such a way that students can achieve intended learning outcomes sequentially. Teaching and learning activities will apply the experiential learning model, which encourages students to apply higher order thinking. The unit ensures that learning activities involve real-world scenarios that in turn assist with ‘real-world’ preparedness. The unit also uses a scaffolding technique that builds a student’s skills and prepares them for the next phase of the learning process.

The unit is structured with required upfront preparation before workshops, most students report that they spend an average of one hour preparing before the workshop and one or more hours after the workshop practicing and revising what was covered. The online learning platforms used in this unit provide multiple forms of preparatory and practice opportunities for students to prepare and revise. It is up to individual students to ensure that the out of class study is adequate for the optimal learning outcomes and successes.

Assessment strategy and rationale

Assessments are used primarily to foster learning. ACU adopts a constructivist approach to learning which seeks alignment between the fundamental purpose of each unit, the learning outcomes, teaching and learning strategy, assessment and the learning environment. In order to pass this unit, students must demonstrate competence in all learning outcomes and achieve an overall score of at least 50%. Using constructive alignment, the assessment tasks are designed for students to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome. The overview of the assessment table is provided below under different delivery modes.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

The latest edition of:

Sadiq K et al., (latest edition), Principles of Taxation Law, Thomson Reuters, Sydney.

Other references:

Chow M, Australian Master Tax Guide, or recent edition, CCH, Sydney.

Deutsch R et al, Fundamental Tax Legislation current edition, Thomson Reuters, Sydney.

Deutsch R et al, Australian Tax Handbook current edition, Thomson Reuters, Sydney.

Fisher and Hodgson, Tax Questions and Answers current edition, Thomson Reuters, Sydney.

Extended Reading:

www.austlii.edu.au (legislation and cases)

www.ato.gov.au (taxation rulings, general tax information)