The Taxation of Capital Gains in Trusts after Bamford: A critical evaluation of the streaming regime in Subdivision 115-C ITAA97

The streaming regime in Subdivision 115-C ITAA97, which was enacted after the High Courts decision in Commissioner of Taxation v Bamford (2010) 240 CLR 481 (Bamford), is an integral component of the taxation of trusts in Australia. The main purpose of the 2011 measures was to ensure that the streaming of capital gains (as well as franked distributions) to specific beneficiaries would be effective for tax purposes as the Government had assumed that the proportionate approach, which was confirmed in Bamford, necessarily implied an inability to stream particular categories of income.