Since the early stages of the Hawke government, Australia???s taxation system has been modified with a view to attracting additional capital into the domestic venture capital market. In December 2002, the Howard government enacted the Taxation Laws Amendment (Venture Capital) Act 2002 (Cth) and the Venture Capital Act 2002 (Cth). This legislative package created a prospective concession primarily aimed at qualifying limited partnerships who participate in the Australian venture capital market. Subject to a rather stringent qualification criteria, such partnerships are treated as fiscally transparent for the purposes of Australian taxation law. In addition, the gains made upon the disposal of portfolio investments by these partnerships may not be subject to Australian capital gains tax ("CGT") or otherwise assessable as ordinary income. The central concept of these measures is the venture capital limited partnership ("VCLP"), and other fund of fund organisational forms which are founded on the limited partnership. For this reason, the provisions of the Taxation Laws Amendment (Venture Capital) Act 2002 (Cth) and the Venture Capital Act 2002 (Cth) are collectively identified as the "VCLP Concessions". This thesis has been prepared as a rigorous assessment of the VCLP Concessions. It draws upon an analysis of the nature and structure of venture capital investing to determine whether the particular features of the VCLP Concessions appropriately cater for the needs of prospective foreign investors. The efficacy and appropriateness of the VCLP Concessions from a policy perspective is also examined. Recommendations are provided which, if enacted, would address regions of structural inconsistency and improve the functioning of this concessional regime.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/186974 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Banfield, Stephen, Banking & Finance, Australian School of Business, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Banking and Finance |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Stephen Banfield, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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