Key Updates for Clients

The first 3 months of 2024 has had several key legal updates and cases. Taryn Hartley will get you up to speed with the major changes, announcements and recent decisions that may affect you and your clients.

Asset Protection Revisited… How Protected is the Family Home?

It’s the age-old question that professional advisers always get asked – “How should I buy my new house?”, “It’s in my partner’s name, surely that’s good enough?”

In this session, Natalie Cameron will refresh ownership options and their advantages and disadvantages from a taxation, revenue, and asset protection perspective.

Earn Outs – How to Protect the Seller

Given the current economic uncertainty, there has been a large uptick in buyers seeking to negotiate earn outs on M&A transactions. If an earn out is negotiated, a seller will need to consider a number of key commercial and tax issues, including:

1. How should the earn out be structured and when should it be paid?

2. What financial or non-financial targets should apply in determining whether the earn out is payable?

3. What form of security or leverage should the seller seek from the buyer to ensure the earn out is paid?

4. What is the tax treatment of the earn out arrangement (including from a CGT and duty perspective) and will the earn out qualify as a look-through earnout right?

Nick Camphin will provide insight into these issues.