TABL5555 Taxation of Property Transactions - 2019

Assessment Format

Assignment 1: Research Plan

Due Date:     Submit via Moodle by Tuesday 8 October 2019 (11:59pm)
Weighting:   10%
Length:        1000 words (plus or minus 10%)

Prepare a Research Plan and an Annotated Reading List (includes Bibliography) for your research paper.  Your Research Plan should identify the key issues and outline the structure for your research paper (but do not write out an answer).

You may select one of the prescribed topics,or devise your own research topic (see below).

Please note that an example of an Annotated Reading List (Bibliography) has been placed on Moodle under Course Materials and further details are provided below.  You are only required to annotate 3 or 4 of the total references.  You can include cases and legislation in your list. Details on setting out a Bibliography can be found in the section called 'Assignment Submission and Preparation'.

Please note that the word limit of 1000 words (plus or minus 10%) words is for the total of the Plan and the Annotated Bibliography.

The Plan should indicate the focus of your research paper: in other words, broadly what you intend to say.

The Prescribed topics will be made available on your Moodle course site.

Alternative topic

Alternatively, you may select your own topic in which case the prior agreement of the lecturer will be required. Approval will not be granted if the topic overlaps substantially with work that you have submitted for another course. You should e-mail your request to the Lecturer-in-charge. You must ensure that you have made your request for approval and submitted a synopsis by Monday 23 September 2019 (11:59pm).

Assignment 2: Research Paper

Due Date:     Submit via Moodle by Monday 11 November 2019 (11:59pm)
Weighting:   50%
Length:        4000 words (plus or minus 10%)

Write and submit a research paper on the topic you identified for the first assignment.

Note that you may wish to depart from your original plan either because you have changed your views or because of suggestions made on your first assignment.  That is acceptable, but if in doubt, you should discuss the matter with your lecturer.

Guidelines

The following guidelines have been developed to assist you to plan and complete your assessment.

Planning the research

Be aware that the session is very short and that there is no flexibility in the date for submission.  Once you have chosen the topic you should be in a position to identify the key issues that you will wish to focus upon in your paper.  Be modest and circumscribed in the goals you set yourself.  It is better to make good progress on narrow fronts than to produce vast and vague conjecture on a broad range of fronts.  Remember that we are looking for the ability to filter complex material in an original and analytical manner. You will need to conduct a literature search at an early stage of the session in order to identify the materials available to you. Having identified and reviewed the material you will be able to consolidate the issues, and you can then prepare your annotated bibliography and plan.

Presentation

You will probably find the writing of the final paper to be the easiest part of the process. The research paper should be organised, well-structured and make use of plenty of spacing and headings. The number of words should be clearly stated at the end of the paper. All quotations should be fully referenced, and acknowledgment must be made of any work or material which is not your own. Beware of 'overdoing' quotes—they should be used sparingly and only where their inclusion adds value to the exposition. Each paper should commence with a short (less than one page) abstract, include a page of contents and conclude with a full bibliography. The word limit will not include the bibliography.

Refer to the 'Assignment Submission and Preparation' section at the end of this course outline for more in-depth guidelines on presenting and submitting your research paper.

It is to be hoped that some of the better research papers will be publishable without too much more work. It may well be that another outcome will be the stimulation of further work in the area by the specialist cells of the Tax Office and the professional bodies, using your work as the basis for such developments.

Take Home Exam

The final assessment for this course will be a take-home exam which will be made available on Moodle during the University exam period. The final examination timetable is published prior to the examination period via the Atax Bulletin and on the School's website at: https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/about/schools/taxation-business-law/student-support/examinations.

You should check this timetable to find the dates of your take-home exams. This is not a negotiable schedule.  

Exams will be released at 9am at regular intervals throughout the exam period. Submissions are due at 7am on the third day after the release date. For example, an exam released at 9am on 5 November will be due at 7am on
8 November. All times are based on Sydney time.

Submissions will be made online through a Turnitin submission link on Moodle. Students will be permitted to use a range of resources and materials to prepare responses. Students will be required to state that they have not consulted any other person in relation to the content of the exam or responses to questions during the date of the exam's release on Moodle and the closing time for submissions of responses via Turnitin.  

​The following guidelines are offered as a general indication of what is expected in terms of the presentation of both assignments and research papers in flexible distance courses.

Each assessment task may also have particular requirements not covered here.  Where information here is in conflict with information provided by the course lecturer, you should follow the advice of your lecturer.

Assignment cover sheets

You must ensure that you include a cover page with each of your assignments that has the following information:

• your name
• your student ID
• the course code
• the course name
• the due date  
• number of words

You should also include your name, ID and course code in the footer of your assignment document along with page numbers. A sample cover sheet can be found on Moodle in the Assessments section.

Margins

You should allow the following standard margins in your assignments to allow space for the lecturer's comments: Left and right margins — 3.5 cm; Top and bottom margins — 2.5 cm.

Headings/Table of contents

Headings should be typed in bold. Only capitalise the first letter of the heading. Do not capitalise the entire heading. If you have written a long essay with many parts, a table of contents should be used. Otherwise, do not include one.

Style of presentation

Your assignment should be typed using an 11 or 12 point font. Single line spacing should normally be used, unless your lecturer tells you otherwise. Leave a line after each paragraph. Do not indent the first line of the paragraph. You should number each page of the assignment.

Footnotes and citation system

You should use footnotes as your referencing tool. Use end notes only if your computer cannot produce footnotes. Use the rules set out in a recognised citation and style guide such as the Australian Guide to Legal Citation. Footnotes are not normally included in the word limit, unless you include substantial commentary or discussion in the footnotes.

Assignment submissions and deadlines

This course uses UNSW Moodle for the electronic delivery and submission of assignments.

Please check your submission link – you may only be entitled to submit an assignment once in which case additional and subsequent submissions will not be accepted.

Step-by-step guides have been produced to assist students through the assignment submission process, and are available for download from the UNSW Teaching Gateway at https://student.unsw.edu.au/moodle.

Due date and time

Each assignment should be submitted via Moodle by midnight AEST (or AEDT, Australian Eastern Daylight Time, where applicable) on the specified due date unless otherwise stipulated. You are advised to submit your assignment early if possible, and to allow at least 15 minutes for the Moodle submission process. Most assignments will be parsed through Turnitin which will check the originality of your work. The School of Taxation & Business Law provides students with the ability to submit draft assignments to Turnitin prior to the due date. This gives you the opportunity to view the Turnitin originality report and self-assess whether your referencing complies with plagiarism guidelines.  Students can view Originality Reports as soon as they are generated for their first three submissions. Originality Report generation for subsequent resubmissions is subject to a 24-hour delay. Please keep this in mind if resubmitting your assignment. Subsequent uploaded files will overwrite previous draft versions. The version of your assignment that is submitted at the due date will be the version that is accepted for marking. For information on submitting assignments and interpreting similarity reports.

Name and save your assignment documents

For identification purposes, you are required to name all of your assignment files that you are submitting using the following naming convention:

Surname_GivenName_Course Code format.
For example: 'Lawson_Henry_TABL1001As1.doc'

You must also retain both an electronic and hard copy of every assignment. No mark can be given or concession awarded should an assignment be lost and no evidence of completion is able to be provided by the student.

Problems with Moodle assignment submission

If you encounter technical difficulties while attempting to access Moodle, and are unable to submit your assignment, please contact the IT Service Desk by email to ITServiceCentre@unsw.edu.au or by telephone on +61 (2) 9385 1333. Your lecturer will not be able to assist with assignment submission issues, and cannot accept assignments emailed direct to him/her.

Assignment return

Assignments may be marked electronically or on paper. Feedback for electronically-marked assignments will be made available electronically, usually through Moodle. Feedback for assignments marked by paper will be returned in hard copy format to the mailing address you have recorded on myUNSW.  It is therefore important that you keep your address details up-to-date on myUNSW (https://www.my.unsw.edu.au). Lecturers will make every effort to return assignments (which are submitted on time) within two weeks with appropriate comments and feedback.

Late Submission and Penalties

An assignment is not considered to be late if it has been submitted via Moodle on or before the due time and date. Posted, faxed or e-mailed assignments will NOT be marked and should not be sent.

If you submit an assignment after the due date, please be aware that the following penalties will be applied.

• Where assignments are up to one week (i.e. 1–5 working days) late: 10% of the maximum marks available for the assessment item will be deducted.
• Where assignments are more than one week late and up to two weeks (i.e. 6–10 working days) late: 20% of the maximum marks available for the assessment item will be deducted.
• Where assignments are more than two weeks (i.e. 11 or more working days) late: the assignment can be perused, but no marks will be awarded. Assignments will be recorded only as having been submitted.

Please note that the penalties are applied to the maximum marks available for the assignment, not the actual mark awarded. For example, a student is due to submit an assignment by 8 October 2019.  The assignment is in fact submitted on 22 October 2019 (10 working days late).

The penalty for lateness will be 20% of the maximum marks for the assessment. If the student's mark before the imposition of the penalty was a credit mark of 65%, after taking the penalty into account this mark will fall to 45%—a failure.

If illness or other verified circumstances beyond your control have a significant effect on your ability to submit an assignment by the due date, the normal penalty may be remitted. Doctor's reasons must be sufficiently detailed and specifically address the effect of the medical condition on your ability to complete assignments. For information on applying for penalty remissions through myUNSW Special Consideration portal, please visit: https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/about/schools/taxation-business-law/student-support/penalty-remissions  

General points

• Requests for penalty remissions are centrally managed by Student Lifecycle.  Lecturers are not permitted to grant penalty remissions and you should not approach lecturers for this purpose.
• You should not anticipate that a Penalty Remission will be granted, and should endeavour to submit all assignments as soon as possible.
• If you require academic assistance contact your lecturer or the School's Administration Team (tbl@unsw.edu.au) during the period that you are preparing assignments.
• You have only 10 weeks in the term, during which time all assignments must be completed. You also need to prepare for the final examination in all courses. Therefore, your time management is very important.

The following is very important:

If your assignment is up to one week (i.e. 1–5 working days) late, your penalty remission request must clearly show that you are seeking a one week penalty remission and you must clearly state your reasons and provide all relevant documentation. If your reasons are judged insufficient you will receive no remission of penalty.

If your assignment is more than one week late but less than two weeks (i.e. 6–10 working days) late, your penalty remission request should indicate whether you are seeking a 10% or a 20% remission. You must clearly show why the penalty remission you are seeking is valid and provide all relevant documentation. If you have requested remission of a 20% penalty and your reasons are judged insufficient, you may receive either a 10% remission or no remission depending on the judged validity of your request. If you requested 10% and your reasons are judged insufficient you will receive no remission of penalty.