Business Law and Corporate Law

The Australian Government has announced significant revisions to its 2026 tax reform package following intensive consultation, including expanded small business CGT concessions, a new innovative business CGT discount for early-stage investors, and broadened exemptions for testamentary trusts. These adjustments respond to industry feedback while maintaining the fundamental architecture of replacing the 50% CGT discount with cost base indexation and introducing a 30% minimum tax on trust distributions.

Hello and welcome, everyone, to our webinar on how the 2026 budget impacts your business.

Partners Scott Hay-Bartlem and Linda Tapiolas break down the 2026 federal Budget's proposed changes to discretionary trusts, examining new tax rates, beneficiary credits, and exemptions. As legislation continues to evolve, they explore the complexities of restructuring trust and company arrangements and explain why businesses should adopt a cautious approach to these significant reforms.

For most successful business owners, franchising sounds like a natural next step. The business works, the brand has traction, and the margins look sound enough to share. What the growth plans rarely account for is that franchising is not simply an expansion strategy. It is a change in what you do for a living.

Franchising in Australia operates under a well-developed legal regime. The Franchising Code of Conduct, which has the force of law under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), sets minimum standards for disclosure, franchise agreements, and the conduct of the franchise relationship.

Most prospective franchisors are focused, reasonably enough, on the beginning; the first territory, the first franchisee, the first year of trading. The exit is, at best, a distant abstraction. But the decisions made at the outset of a franchise system shape the value of that system more than almost any other factor, and by the time a founder is actively preparing for sale, most of the choices that will determine the valuation have already been made. The exit is not an event at the end of the journey. It is a design principle that either runs through the system from day one, or does not.

Australia's proposed capital gains tax reforms may inadvertently undermine government efforts to strengthen sovereign defence capability and innovation. As the nation faces increasing global instability and supply chain vulnerabilities, changes to the CGT regime could discourage investment in defence-focused startups precisely when such investment is most critical to national security objectives.

The 2026-27 Federal Budget introduced the most significant capital gains tax reforms in 25 years, replacing the 50% CGT discount with cost base indexation and a 30% minimum tax. Combined with new ASIC instruments on stamp duty and portfolio holdings disclosure, investment fund managers face coordinated disclosure, operational and structural challenges requiring substantial work over the next 12 to 18 months.

In this episode of the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer 'Tax Bites' podcast, host Toby Eggleston alongside Professor Graham Cooper and fellow partner Ryan Leslie, explore the complexities...

The Fair Work Commission's 2026 Annual Wage Review has delivered significant changes to Australia's minimum wage landscape, including a 4.75% increase to modern award rates and a structural adjustment to the lowest pay classifications. These changes will reshape wage structures across industries and create important compliance obligations for employers navigating enterprise agreements, annualised salary arrangements, and award-based remuneration systems.

The Federal Court's landmark decision in ASIC v Star Entertainment Group reveals critical governance failures that occurred well before matters reached the boardroom, with profound implications for general counsel, company secretaries, and in-house legal teams. This analysis examines how information flow breakdowns, inadequate risk escalation, and the blurring of legal and operational responsibilities created personal liability exposure for senior legal officers.

The Full Federal Court's decision in Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd v Tickle clarifies the framework for establishing gender identity discrimination under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, determining that exclusion based on appearance characteristics that appertain to transgender women constitutes direct rather than indirect discrimination. The ruling has sparked debate about proposed legislative reforms that would define 'man' and 'woman' strictly by biological sex at birth, potentially impacting transgender rig