Tax reform implications.

Which particular course is appropriate?
 

Review the options before committing to a restructure
Tax reform makes it timely to review practice ownership and succession plans. The commercial questions remain specific to your practice: what you own, what may be transferred, what it is worth and how a change would affect your future options.
Valuation supports that assessment. Tax and legal advice determine how the law applies and whether a particular course is appropriate.

Capital gains tax
The core CGT changes have been legislated, with the new framework applying to relevant gains accruing from 1 July 2027. It replaces the general 50% discount with an inflation-based approach and introduces a minimum 30% tax on relevant real gains, subject to the applicable rules and exceptions. Further implementation measures must be read alongside that framework. [1] [2]

Discretionary trusts
The proposed minimum tax regime is intended to apply from 1 July 2028. The exposure draft released on 3 September 2026 includes an option for eligible discretionary trusts to elect to make fixed distributions to nominated beneficiaries, as an alternative to restructuring. It also sets out proposed expanded rollover relief for qualifying restructures over a three-year period from 1 July 2027. These are proposals, not a universal instruction to change structure. [3]
The election's conditions and long-term implications require careful review. State and territory duty treatment must also be checked; a Commonwealth tax concession or stated expectation about duty does not settle every state-law consequence. [4]

Small business concessions
Treasury states that the four small-business CGT concessions are retained, with the turnover threshold for the 50% active-asset reduction increasing from $2 million to $10 million from 1 July 2027. That change is specific to this concession. It does not make every owner eligible for every concession. [5]

Where valuation can help
Establish the value of the business, goodwill or ownership interest relevant to an option under consideration.
Provide an explained commercial baseline for comparing a restructure, a partner transition, retention of the current arrangement, or a sale.
Document the evidence and assumptions at the date required for the agreed purpose.
Identify earnings and transferability issues that could affect both current value and the success of a future transition.

Prepare the brief and preserve the evidence
Ask your tax adviser whether a valuation is required, which asset or interest it must cover and the appropriate date. Where a statutory date such as 1 July 2027 is relevant, plan for that date specifically. An estimate of value today is not automatically evidence of value at that later date.
Gather the relevant financial, ownership and operating records while they are available. Agree the valuation scope before implementation, including who needs to rely on the report. We can coordinate the valuation brief with your advisers, with your authority.

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Sources for this page

1. Treasury Laws Amendment Tax Reform No 1 Act 2026

2. Treasury — Budget 2026–27 tax system changes

3. Treasury — Discretionary trust exposure draft announcement, 3 September 2026

4. CPA Australia — State and territory duty treatment of the proposed trust election

5. Treasury — Capital gains tax and discretionary trusts small business explainer

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