Tax Training
About Tax Training
Cartland Law’s Tax Training is held each week from 9 am to 10 am on Friday mornings. We have been holding these Tax Training in some form from over a dozen years. Originally, they were held for the staff of Dr Campbell Rankine and open to interested parties. Dr Rankine still leads the majority of the sessions.
The format of the tax trainings is a discussion group and not a lecture. They are at an advanced level and intended to delve deep rather than wide. You receive 1 CPD Point for attendance.
Typically, we discuss one case per week. The nature of the discussion is not predictable (indeed the best parts are often tangential discussions) and sometimes the case may be extended across multiple weeks. The cases chosen for discussion are either part of deep dives down particular topics (eg the nature of a beneficiary’s interest in a trust) or novel judgments as they are arise. Accordingly, while there is an overarching narrative the subject for the next week can only be truly finalised one week in advance. Sometimes topics are set in advance (particularly when the discussion leader is from interstate) and the narrative will flow around that set session.
We consider black letter law. Accordingly, Tax Training is suitable for both private practitioners and officers of the revenue as we ultimately have the same aim: to ensure that taxpayers pay the correct amount of tax.
If you would like to attend a particular week, please RSVP below on this page using the form before the event with your coffee/tea order and we will have it waiting for you when you arrive. Alternetively you can email our office manager Pamelia. Places will be secured by the first responders. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the discussions, they are in-person only. There is no cost to the trainings.
There is a mailing list to join if you would like to be alerted to the Tax Training topics on a week-to-week basis.
Upcoming Sessions
Tax Training – 07/11/2025 – Adrian Cartland: Bendel, High Court and the Nature of Trust Entitlements
This week we will read the High Court hearing transcript in Commissioner of Taxation v Bendel and focus on what the Court appears to be probing beyond Div 7A: the nature and source of trust entitlements. If the High Court does examine the nature of trust entitlements...
How to attend
Fill out the form to the right by adding in your name, email address, name and date of the event you will be attending and what drink you would like to have.
Tax Training Attendance Form
Cartland Law’s Tax Training Notification List
Subscribe to the Tax Training Email List to recieve an email each Friday afternoon notifiying you about the Tax Training session for the following week, plus reading and preparation materials.
Cartland Law’s Tax Training Notification List
Subscribe to the Tax Training Email List to recieve an email each Friday afternoon notifiying you about the Tax Training session for the following week, plus reading and preparation materials.
Tax Training – 27/06/2025 – Adrian Cartland: Equuscorp Pty Ltd v Glengallan Investments
We continue our exploration into the question: can a journal entry constitute a payment? While last week’s case (DFC of T v Black) addressed the limits of unilateral forgiveness and the meaning of "payment" in the context of accounting entries, this week we consider...
Past Sessions
Tax Training – 10/10/2025 – Adrian Cartland: ROSS Intelligence, Copyright, AI, and Legal Search
This session examines the clash between copyright law and artificial intelligence through the lens of Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence. We will read Judge Bibas’s 2025 decision and ROSS’s Opening Brief on appeal to the Third Circuit. The case asks whether Westlaw...
Tax Training – 03/10/2025 – Adrian Cartland: Bitcoin as Physical Property for Conversion and Detinue
Next week we turn to Poulton v Conrad [2025] TASFC 7, a decision of the Tasmanian Full Court that may prove to be the most radical judgment yet on Bitcoin. The Court upheld liability in conversion and detinue for Bitcoin retained by an intermediary, despite orthodox...
Tax Training – 26/09/2025 – Adrian Cartland: Trust Splitting PBRs and Resettlement
This session examines the ATO’s approach to trust splitting and resettlement. While the Commissioner’s outcomes in recent private rulings may be defensible, the reasoning is, in my view, wrongly framed. We will analyse the ATO’s position against the background of...
Tax Training – 19/09/2025 – Julie Van der Velde: Inadequate Deliberation and Trustee Duties
Next week Julie Van der Velde, Founder and Principal of VdV Legal, will lead our session. Julie has over 20 years’ experience in tax, trusts, and estate planning. She will examine the Privy Council’s decision in Ashley Dawson-Damer v Grampian Trust Co Ltd [2025] UKPC...
Tax Training – 12/09/2025 – Adrian Cartland: Warren Tredrea, Promissory Notes and the Limits of Payment
This session examines the Full Court’s decision in Tredders Investments Pty Ltd as trustee for Warren Tredrea Trust v Channel 9 South Australia Pty Ltd (No 3) [2025] FCAFC 125. The case is the latest in a line of authorities rejecting attempts to discharge debts...
Tax Training – 05/09/2025 – Adrian Cartland: Substratum and Trust Resettlements
This week’s session examines the Queensland Court of Appeal’s decision in Staley v Hill Family Holdings Pty Ltd [2025] QCA 95 and its implications for the concept of “substratum” in determining whether a trust variation constitutes a resettlement. The case highlights...
Tax Training – 29/08/2025 – Adrian Cartland: Stability AI, Compression v Vectorisation, and Copyright
This week we move from the Anthropic case to Andersen et al v Stability AI Ltd in the United States, a case that directly raises whether AI training involves simple “vectorisation” (statistical abstraction) or “compression” (storing compact but recognisable copies)....
Tax Training – 22/08/2025 – Adrian Cartland: Anthropic, Fair Use and the Nature of Intellectual Property
We have explored an introduction to how large language models (LLMs) function, with a particular focus on tokenization, vector representations, and the idea of whether these models truly “compress” text as part of their process. We’ll be continuing on with our...
Tax Training – 01/08/2025 – Adrian Cartland: Anthropic, Fair Use and the Nature of Intellectual Property
Due to a combination of illness, travel commitments, and general availability, we’ve decided to take a short mid-semester break from our weekly tax training sessions. We’ve had strong interest in our upcoming session on Anthropic, Fair Use, and the Nature of...
Tax Training – 20/06/2025 – Adrian Cartland: DFCT v Black – Can a journal entry constitute a payment?
We have finished our analysis of what is money and now turn to consider what is a payment. In particular, we want to examine if and when a journal entry can constitute a payment. The first case we will look at is Deputy Federal Commissioner of Taxation v Black. This...
Contact us
admin@cartlandlaw.com
0428 053 647
PO Box 6433, Halifax Street, SA 5000
Level 12, 431 King William Street, Adelaide SA 5000