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The Australia High Court ruled in Commissioner of Taxation v. Peabody that the Commissioner had not established that the taxpayer should be liable for income tax on a stock transfer that involved a company owned by a family trust. The High Court also considered the scope of the Commissioner's discretion in determining whether a transaction constitutes a scheme entered into for tax avoidance purposes. Further decisions will be needed to clarify the continued vitality of the anti-avoidance provisions of Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 Part IVa.

The Taxation Laws Amendment Act of 1992 has changed the Australian tax system in regard to depreciation, rollovers, inter-corporate dividend rebates as well as income tax assessment. The main change relating to depreciation is in the shift of the responsibility for determining the effective life of depreciable assets from the government to the taxpayer.