The draft legislation, released on 8 February 2018, had a retrospective start date of 1 July 2017, which raised concerns because of the lack of clarity during the transition period of the budget announcement and the release of the draft legislation.
The measures proposed that small business CGT concessions can only be accessed in relation to assets used in a small business or ownership interests in a small business and was originally introduced in the 2017 Federal budget. The new rules are touted as an integrity rule designed to prevent taxpayers from accessing the concessions for assets which are unrelated to their small business, such as by arranging their affairs so that their ownership interests in larger businesses do not count towards the tests for determining eligibility for the concessions. The government released draft legislation, earlier this year.