The ATO has determined that a payment received by a personal services entity (PSE) from a service acquirer during a period the service provider is not providing services to the acquirer until further called upon is personal services income (PSI) under the tax rules. The ATO says there may be circumstances where a payment made by a service acquirer to a PSE during a period in which the service provider is not called upon to do anything is not PSI because the payment appears to be in consideration for doing nothing. However, the ATO says such a view is “clearly not in accord with the intention of the legislature given the alienation measure is targeted at salary like payments”.
The following example illustrates the ATO’s point:
A sole director/shareholder (“Jim”) provides his expertise and skills to a client company for a flat monthly contractual fee that is non-contingent. During a specified period, a dispute arises between Jim and the client company which results in no work being performed for the period. However, Jim is still paid the monthly contractual fee. According to the ATO, the monthly fee during the dispute period is considered to be personal services income under the tax rules notwithstanding that the client company did not call upon Jim to undertake further services.
Submitted by: Matthew Muscat – Senior Accountant
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