A recent report by The Australian highlights a serious internal breach at prominent law firm Slater & Gordon, now the subject of litigation in the Victorian Supreme Court. The matter underscores critical vulnerabilities in data security and internal controls within professional services firms. It is alleged that Bridgett Maddox, a former payroll manager with a...

Melbourne’s got a rep for culture, coffee, and sprawling suburbs—but at what cost? From Werribee’s plains to Pakenham’s paddocks, the city’s rapid expansion is consuming the countryside in all directions. New housing estates promise affordable homes and backyards, yet they quietly exact a heavy toll on the environment, strain roads and services, and erase precious...

Recent budget measures have upended Victoria’s long-settled land tax regime. Under the government’s “COVID Debt Repayment Plan”, the tax-free threshold was slashed from $300,000 down to $50,000 as of 1 January 2024. In practical terms, many thousands of additional homes and small properties are now being taxed for the first time. As KHQ Lawyers explains,...

Stamp duty is a cost most property buyers anticipate, but what if your transaction does not attract duty At Hayton Kosky Lawyers, we frequently assist clients in securing legitimate exemptions and concessions under Victoria’s Duties Act 2000 This article provides a clear breakdown of property transfers that may be exempt from stamp duty or eligible...

Despite decades of recommendations and reviews, Australia’s tax system remains remarkably unreformed since the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2000. The last major reform before that came in 1985, when the Hawke/Keating government introduced a capital gains tax (CGT), recognising asset growth as a legitimate and necessary target for taxation. But...

Medibank failed to implement the following specific security measures: ​ Multi-factor authentication for its Virtual Private Network (VPN): Medibank did not require two or more ways of proving a user’s identity for accessing its VPN. ​ This means that the hackers only needed someone’s username and password to gain access to Medibank’s corporate network. ​...

A shared equity program designed to help aspiring first home buyers enter a prohibitive housing market will be cut off in a year. It was in and now its out Dumping rubbish will cost Victorians an extra half a billion dollars over three years under an increase to the state’s waste levy. This levy (TAX)...

From 3 August 2024, all new Victorian certificates of title from the Register of Land will be electronic. Existing paper certificates of title will remain valid until they are next required for a conveyancing transaction.  

Law firms and their clients are ripe targets for cybercrime. This time it is the turn of Minter Ellison who I guess forgot the cardinal rule of ringing the client to confirm bank details before transferring funds. Ringing the client or the client ringing the firm to verify bank account details for any first transaction...

Email accounts of law firms and conveyancing companies continue to be compromised, providing a path for sophisticated crims with local conveyancing knowledge to impersonate the conveyancer and dupe the client into redirecting settlement funds to the hacker’s account. Then the funds, your funds, are lost for all time. How does it happen and how do...