This particular client had ventured out of their usual practice of using companies to acquire their investments and had bought two Queensland properties as investments via a discretionary trust.  The Division 7A repayments had become burdensome. The Tax team facilitated a restructure to corporatise the discretionary trust without duty so as to eliminate the Division 7A loan.

An IT company wanted to raise money from investors to help it grow. Their options were limited because the company was structured as a trust, to going to a bank and taking out a loan. The company didn’t want to take on debt and instead wanted to bring in new equity investors. We advised on how to restructure the company so they could raise capital from new investors by issuing equity in the company. The company successfully raised what it needed to expand its business and is realising its growth strategy.

The way in which a pharmaceutical company was structured was not attractive to potential purchasers, meaning our client was not on a good footing to negotiate the best sale price. We advised the client on how to restructure its businesses and property holdings into a more streamlined structure to facilitate a ‘cleaner’ sale. In addition, we ensured the restructure took advantage of available CGT and stamp duty exemptions. The restructure resulted in no adverse tax and stamp duty consequences and when it came time to sell, the new, simpler legal structure resulted in a tangible increase in the purchase price offered by the purchaser.

After a successful pharmaceutical consulting firm won a tender to provide services to a large Hong Kong company, the owners called on Macpherson Kelley to advise them on their international expansion. They wanted a new corporate structure to enable them to expand to Hong Kong and more countries in the future. The restructure also needed to be tax effective and flexible as they planned to sell down some of their shareholding to private equity investors and list on the share market in the future. We helped the owners navigate complex international tax issues, enabling them to expand to Hong Kong. We also connected them to our network of corporate advisors to help them sell down to private equity and plan their initial public offering.