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ACC311 Taxation Law and Practice
Task 1 Case Study (50% weighting) Semester 1 2023
Due date: Sunday 7 May XXXXXXXXXX:59pm)
Approx. 1,500 words
Specific Task requirements:
Dr Paul Baker has been employed as a senior lecturer at the North Queensland University (NQU)
ased in Cairns since 2007. He has been ma
ied to Kylie for 16 years and has 2 daughters, Emma
who is 14 and Georgina who is 12. Kylie works part-time as an office manager at a small accounting
firm. Emma and Georgina both attend school at St Peter’s College and each attend dance lessons
after school at the Dance Elite dance studio in Cairns. The family is covered for hospital and extras
costs via a comprehensive private health insurance policy with Medibank.
Paul lectures in several criminology courses at NQU at both its Cairns and Townsville campuses. He
also conducts research in the areas of situational crime prevention, police integrity management
and security industry regulation. Across his academic career, he has published 20 journal articles,
presented at 12 conferences and has been successful at obtaining research grants worth a total of
$5 million (including a $2.2 million Australian Research Council Discovery research grant).
For several years, Paul has been undertaking collaborative research with Professors Tony Jackson
and Sarah Campbell from the University of Houston (Texas, United States). He met Tony and Sarah
when they were visiting Australia for the Australia and New Zealand Society of Criminology
conference in Melbourne. In mid-2022, Paul applied for RDL (research development leave) at NQU
to enable him to travel to Houston in early 2023 for a total period of 4 months to present a research
paper at the American Society of Criminology (ASC) annual conference and to continue his
collaborative research with Tony and Sarah.
Paul received notification in August 2022 that his RDL application was approved, and he started
making the necessary travel a
angements for his trip. According to the conditions of his RDL, NQU
would pay the following:
• his flights from Cairns to Houston and return (up to a maximum of A$3,000);
• his accommodation in Houston (up to a maximum of A$500 per week); and
• his general living expenses (an allowance of A$250 per week)
The NQU travel team booked and paid for Paul’s flights directly with the airline and his
accommodation in an Ai
nb apartment in the subu
of Eastwood which is a short bus ride from
the University of Houston campus. Paul also received an upfront payment from NQU of A$4,000 to
cover the cost of his general living expenses (ie food and incidentals) during the 4 months of his trip.
The conditions of Paul’s RDL require him to provide written evidence (eg receipts) of his actual
expenses when he returns to Australia, as well as repaying to NQU any amount unspent from the
A$4,000.
On 1 Fe
uary 2023, Paul flew to Houston. Kylie, Emma and Georgina did not travel to Houston with
him because the girls had just started a new school year at St Peter’s College. Paul decided that he
would pay for his general living expenses while in Houston using his credit card, rather than opening
a bank account. He also decided to travel around Houston via public transport (ie buses and trains),
ather than hiring or buying a car.
At the University of Houston, Paul was provided with use of an office on the 3rd floor of Phillip Guthrie
Hoffman Hall overlooking Lynn Eusan Park. Over the following months, Paul regularly met with Tony
and Sarah to continue work on their research projects. In late March 2023, Paul was invited to
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present several guest lectures at the University and was paid a total of US$2,500 for doing so.
In early April 2023, Paul attended the ASC conference at the Hilton Americas in Houston to present
his research paper and network with other researchers attending the conference from across the
United States, Canada and South America. His paper received some excellent feedback from those
attending his presentation and he developed connections with several researchers from the
University of Toronto (Canada) who are interested in some collaborative research in the future.
In mid-April, Kylie, Emma and Georgina flew to Houston to spend one week with Paul during the
girl’s Easter school holidays. During this time, they visited the Space Center Houston, attended a
Houston Rockets NBA game at the Toyota Centre Stadium in downtown Houston, did a day trip to
Galveston and also did lots of shopping at the massive Galleria shopping centre.
After Kylie, Emma and Georgina flew back to Australia, Paul continued working on the research
projects with Tony and Sarah. Then on 31 May 2023, Paul flew back to Australia.
In mid-June 2023, Paul and Kylie sold their jointly owned family home in Cairns for A$1,235,000.
They had purchased the home for A$752,000 in October 2020.
The following table shows the income that Paul received in the 2023 financial year:
Type of Income Financial Year
2023
Salary from NQU A$135,000
Profit from sale of family home A$483,000
Winnings from Powe
all lottery A$10,790
Allowance from NQU for general living expenses in Houston A$4,000
Payment for guest lectures at University of Houston (no tax was
payable on this in the United States)
US$2,500*
Dividends (fully franked) from Brisbane Broncos Ltd A$1,560
Interest – term deposit at Eastpac bank A$765
* Exchange rate on date payment was received was A$1 = US $0.672.
The following table show various expenses incu
ed by Paul during the 2023 financial year (including
during his time in Houston):
Type of Expense Financial Year
2023
Actual general living expenses incu
ed in Houston $A3,750
Car hire for day trip to Galveston (Texas) A$180
Legal expenses associated with sale of family home A$885
Preparation of 2022 tax return by MeTax A$257
Entry tickets for Space Centre Houston and tickets to Houston
Rockets game
A$634
Membership fees for Australia and New Zealand Society of
Criminology
A$316
Donation to ‘Friends for Life’ (deductible gift recipient) A$250
Car expenses (while in Australia, Paul travelled a total of
4,590km driving in his own car between NQU’s campuses in
Cairns and Townsville for teaching purposes)
A$?
(must be
calculated)
Home office expenses (while in Australia, Paul worked in his
dedicated home office in Australia for 2 days per week and 8
hours per day across 28 weeks)
A$? (must be
calculated)
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Required:
1. Explain whether Paul is an Australian resident or a foreign resident for tax purposes in the
2023 financial year. In answering this question, you should explain and apply each of the four
tests used for determining taxpayer residency (include any reasonable assumptions you have
made).
2. Explain whether each of the income items in the table above should be included in Paul’s
assessable income for the 2023 financial year (include any reasonable assumptions you have
made).
3. Explain whether each of the expenses incu
ed by Paul in the table above are tax deductible
in the 2023 financial year (include any reasonable assumptions you have made).
4. Explain the process for calculating income tax liability for an individual taxpayer such as Paul
and calculate his total income tax liability for the 2023 financial year (incl. Medicare levy and
Medicare levy surcharge if relevant) ( i n c l u d e a n y r e a s o n a b l e a s s u m p t i o n s
y o u h a v e m a d e ) .
General task information:
• Your assignment should be prepared in the format of a report with a title page, table of
contents, introduction, headings and sub-headings in the body and conclusion. An executive
summary is not necessary. Further guidance on report writing is available here.
• In answering each of the requirements above, you should identify the relevant legislation,
case law and tax rulings and apply them to the facts of the case study in your own words.
• Your report must be your own individual work, i.e. it is not a group assignment. If it is
suspected that you have copied material from another student or any other source without
appropriate referencing, or committed any other form of academic misconduct (eg having
someone else prepare your report or used generative AI tools such as Chat GPT), the
necessary action will be taken under the University’s Student Conduct - Governing Policy.
Possible consequences for proven cases of academic misconduct can range from
esubmission of an assessment task with a maximum available mark of 50%, to suspension
or expulsion from the University.
• Therefore, it is important that you provide complete referencing for all sources of
information (eg legislation, case law, tax rulings etc) that you use in preparing your report
using the Harvard referencing system. This includes both in-text references in the body of
your report and a list of references at the end of your report (with separate sub-headings for
legislation, cases, taxation rulings and other sources).
• If you wish to apply for an extension to your submission deadline, please email the course
coordinator (Dr Peter Baxter XXXXXXXXXX) to explain the circumstances and attach
appropriate supporting documentation relevant to your request. According to the
University’s Assessment: Courses and Coursework Programs – Procedures, acceptable
grounds for an extension include: illness or serious health problems; serious personal
trauma; commitments as a member of the UniSC High Performance Sport program; religious
or cultural grounds; and unexpected family, work or personal circumstances.
• Late penalties will be applied to all reports submitted after the deadline and without an
approved extension. More details on the specific late penalties are provided in the course
outline.
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https:
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