The ATO has recently finalised its stance on the issue of commercial debt forgiveness – in particular, the “natural love and affection” exclusion.
A commercial debt is any debt where interest payable is deductible, or would be deductible if interest were payable, but for certain statutory restrictions. Under the commercial debt forgiveness provisions, if a taxpayer’s obligation to pay their debt is released, waived, or otherwise extinguished, the amount forgiven will be deducted from the taxpayer’s current and future tax deductions. Specifically, the amount forgiven will reduce prior-year revenue losses, prior-year net capital losses, undeducted balances of other expenditure being carried forward for deduction, and the CGT cost base of other assets held, in that order.
Given that forgiving commercial debts may mean a business will have to pay more tax, it can be advantageous if debts the business has forgiven are not captured under the commercial debt forgiveness provisions. The exclusions available include forgiveness of some debts relating to bankruptcy or by will, and a person’s forgiveness of a debt for reasons of natural love and affection for the debtor.
The natural love and affection exclusion to commercial debt forgiveness previously didn’t require the creditor who forgave a debt to be a “natural person”. This meant that a company, through its directors, could forgive the debts of an individual, giving the reason of natural love and affection for the individual, and this would not have been considered a commercial debt forgiveness, meaning a lower tax bill for the company.
TIP: The term “natural person” is usually used to distinguish individual human beings from corporations (which can still be “legal persons”).
In February 2019 the ATO released a draft determination which explicitly stated that the exclusion for debts forgiven for reasons of natural love and affection requires the creditor to be a natural person. This has recently been confirmed in the finalised determination.
While the ATO states that a debt-forgiving creditor must be a natural person and the object of their love and affection must be one or more other natural persons, there is no requirement that the debtor must also be a natural person. For example, this means that the exclusion could apply in circumstances where the debtor is a company, such as where a parent forgives a debt they are owed by a company that is 100% owned by their child or children.
According to the ATO, whether a creditor’s decision to forgive a debt is motivated by natural love and affection for a person needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
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