Taxation Law: Bonus Payments
1. The assessability or otherwise to Jino and Anna of the annual bonuses paid by Darling Bank to them.
Consideration of the proximity of services or employment relationship, the importance of the donor’s motive and the status of gratuitous payments are relevant in determining whether the bonuses received are assessable income. We can determine that the bonuses satisfactorily fulfil the requirement that for the bonuses to be assessable they must “come in”.(tenant v smith)
Natural incidents of employment will be income, because they arise from a service relationship and because they are an expected incident of the occupations. (Kelly v DCT) Ultimately, it is the character of the payment in the hands of the recipient that is determinative (Scott) of income. The bonuses received by Jino and Anna were not mere gifts. The amount in Scott v FCT was a gift; it was gratuitous, not made in discharge of an obligation and not taken by the recipient as discharging an obligation and not income by ordinary concepts. The payments in Scott v FCT and Moore v Griffiths were ‘one-off’. The payments were in addition to entitlements under service agreements; the donor’s motive was to make a personal tribute and the payment was unexpected. While income generally exhibits recurrence, regularity and periodicity, it would be wrong to conclude they were necessary elements and that a ‘one-off’ payment in the nature of a ‘gift’ cannot be income. (demonstrated by Squatting Investment Co)
In Moore v Griffiths, the bonus received was a testimonial or personal gift rather than a reward for services rendered by the taxpayer in the course of his employment. The payment had no foreseeable element of recurrence, and there was no knowledge or expectation on the taxpayer’s part that the payment would be made as a reward for rendering his services.
A bonus payment is ordinary income for the purposes of subsection 6-5(2) of the ITAA 1997, which provides that the assessable income of a
Consideration of the proximity of services or employment relationship, the importance of the donor’s motive and the status of gratuitous payments are relevant in determining whether the bonuses received are assessable income. We can determine that the bonuses satisfactorily fulfil the requirement that for the bonuses to be assessable they must “come in”.(tenant v smith)
Natural incidents of employment will be income, because they arise from a service relationship and because they are an expected incident of the occupations. (Kelly v DCT) Ultimately, it is the character of the payment in the hands of the recipient that is determinative (Scott) of income. The bonuses received by Jino and Anna were not mere gifts. The amount in Scott v FCT was a gift; it was gratuitous, not made in discharge of an obligation and not taken by the recipient as discharging an obligation and not income by ordinary concepts. The payments in Scott v FCT and Moore v Griffiths were ‘one-off’. The payments were in addition to entitlements under service agreements; the donor’s motive was to make a personal tribute and the payment was unexpected. While income generally exhibits recurrence, regularity and periodicity, it would be wrong to conclude they were necessary elements and that a ‘one-off’ payment in the nature of a ‘gift’ cannot be income. (demonstrated by Squatting Investment Co)
In Moore v Griffiths, the bonus received was a testimonial or personal gift rather than a reward for services rendered by the taxpayer in the course of his employment. The payment had no foreseeable element of recurrence, and there was no knowledge or expectation on the taxpayer’s part that the payment would be made as a reward for rendering his services.
A bonus payment is ordinary income for the purposes of subsection 6-5(2) of the ITAA 1997, which provides that the assessable income of a