In a trust, a trustee has strict obligations to beneficiaries. These are either set out in the trust deed, or apply via operation of law. Where a trustee does not act in accordance with those obligations there is a ‘breach of trust’. Here we take a deep dive into the concept of a breach of trust, and examine some recent case law.
A dispute between shareholders can derail the small and medium-sized businesses that make up the bulk of the Australian economy. Here we explain how a shareholders agreement can help reduce the risk of serious dispute.
Australia applies ‘worldwide taxation’ when calculating corporate and personal income tax. This means Australian startups can owe tax in Australia for all their international activities, even where the founder has moved overseas. Here we explain the key tax rules for Australian startups.
If you serve an international customer market, the question naturally arises; where is the best place to base your crypto or fintech business? Our focus here is on exploring offshore solutions for Australian fintech and crypto startups — looking specifically at the possibility of setting up in the Cayman Islands (Cayman) as a jurisdiction of incorporation.
What happens when a corporate trustee of a trading trust goes into liquidation? Here we look at the current state of the law and the uncertainty around the power of liquidators in this situation.
A trading trust is a trust over goodwill and business assets with the trustee being the legal person responsible to creditors. A trading trust is usually a discretionary trust whose trustee is a company, that is used to trade for the benefit of the beneficiaries. As with a non-trading trust, a trading trust separates legal ownership of assets from beneficial ownership and control. The controllers of the business are the owners and their family who exercise a controlling mind through their appointment as directors of the trustee company.
In recent years, there has been a real ‘gold rush’ for cryptocurrency. And while cryptocurrency needs to be ‘mined’, just like the real stuff, it is much easier to transport and, potentially, keep secure.
Offshore tax havens are the jurisdictions of choice for building corporate structures to protect assets from creditors and hide the identity of ultimate beneficiaries. This article should be of interest to any professional advisor interested in understanding the nuts and bolts of setting up an offshore corporate structure.
Receiving a Director Penalty Notice (DPN) will be a confronting experience for any company director.
A dispute over a linear accelerator sounds like a James Bond movie but such dispute went to Court recently. A landlord, an equipment supplier, an administrator and bank all claimed an interest in the $9 million medical equipment and the eventual winner was the equipment supplier who sold the linear accelerator on credit. Fixtures are […]
In article: When a business provides finance or goods or services on credit, they need to consider how best to protect themselves from non-payment by their debtor. One important way of doing this is by registering a personal property security.…
The Personal Property Securities Act (PPSA) has implemented a single national register that applies to all personal property security interests. The PPSA has also provided us with a set of priority rules to determine disputes between competing security interests. Of particular note is the Purchase Money Security Interest (or PMSI). A PMSI is a security […]