Section 70-100 can allow trading stock to move at its closing tax value rather than market value. The usual design: the trust and the new company first run the business together in partnership, with the trust retaining an economic interest in the livestock representing at least 25% of its market value, before a later step toward the final structure. The joint election is due by 1 September in the year after the change, the elected value must be below market, and the stock must immediately become an asset of a business the partnership carries on.

This two-step is not automatic. An integrity rule can defeat the election where the dealing is outside ordinary family or commercial dealing, and a partnership that exists for one day, holds one meeting and posts two journals invites that argument. The partnership should trade for a supportable period, a practical safeguard rather than a statutory minimum: owning the stock, selling the wool and lambs, paying the bills and splitting profit under a written agreement.

One more reason to run it properly: while the interim partnership continues as a genuine operating structure, eligible individual partners may retain access to income averaging and farm management deposits, depending on their continuing primary production activity and the actual arrangements.

And the contracts must match the election. If the stock moves at $1.1 million, no document may say the partnership paid $5 million. A market-value contract with a book-value journal behind it can defeat the treatment and leave a tax debt with no cash behind it.

On 10 June 2026 the High Court decided Commissioner of Taxation v Bendel. On the facts before the Court, the corporate beneficiary’s unpaid entitlements were not loans for Division 7A purposes. That ended a fifteen-year ATO position. The ATO issued its Decision Impact Statement on 26 June 2026, withdrew TD 2022/11 and is rewriting its related guidance.

It would be a mistake to read that as the all-clear where a trust is the structure and corporate beneficiaries are the ideal business structure. The Bendel decision turned on the trust deed, the resolutions and the accounts, and the ATO says it will keep testing section 100A and Subdivision EA. The Calder entitlements are owed to individuals, not a company, so Bendel does not decide them at all.

Actual loans from the new company to family members can still attract Division 7A. Unless an exception applies or the loan is repaid within the required period, it will generally need complying terms and minimum yearly repayments. Design the structure so it works even if the rules tighten again.

The business transfer can be GST-free as a going concern, but only if the supply is for consideration, the recipient is registered or required to be registered for GST, the parties agree in writing before supply, everything necessary to continue the enterprise is supplied, and the trust carries on farming until settlement. Because the land is not moving, the farm lease must be in place at transfer, and any machinery staying in the trust must be covered by leases or licences. The company must be able to farm on day one.

The land-leasing arrangement is a separate enterprise. The leasing entity, which may be a tax law partnership of Mum and Dad, must consider GST registration based on its projected GST turnover, and the rent may then carry GST that the company claims back. Employees are not supplied for going concern purposes but still need new TFN declarations and super choice forms, and doubtful trade debtors are often better left in the trust.

An income tax rollover does nothing for transfer duty. Western Australia exempts transfers of farming property between family members from transfer duty, and separate landholder duty relief may apply where shares in a family-owned farming company pass between family members. A direct transfer of farming land to an operating company should not be assumed to qualify.

For the Calders, no transfer of the land occurs as part of the present restructure. Keeping it with Mum and Dad may preserve a family farm exemption pathway for a later transfer to Sarah, subject to the conditions applying at that time. The duty treatment of the livestock, plant and lease must still be confirmed with RevenueWA before documents are signed, not after.