Native title agreements: Income tax and GST scenarios

Native Title Agreements range from simple agreements to complex commercial deals requiring sophisticated income management arrangements. Fundamentally they all involve consent by native title holders to use of country. But the GST laws talk about consideration for taxable supplies and while Parliament has amended the tax laws in relation to income tax, the law remains unclear. These two legal frameworks use completely different terminology and are underpinned by completely different considerations.  PBCs, Land Councils and native title practitioners need to make recommendations to native title holders about which payments under agreements are consideration for taxable supplies, whether payments are statutory native title benefits, and who would be liable for any GST.  Our workshop will be an interactive question and answer session.   We will respond to scenarios provided by PBCs and NTRBs as well as cover some of the basics to consider when answering income tax and GST questions in a native title context.