Hardie gets tax break to pay for compensation

Building products company James Hardie says it has received positive rulings from the tax office allowing it to finalise its asbestos compensation deal. James Hardie said it believed the rulings would deliver an acceptable tax outcome for the proposed fund set up to compensate Australians with asbestos-related personal injury claims against former James Hardie subsidiaries. James Hardie will now move to finalise the funding deal with the NSW government. The deal was thrown into doubt after an Australian Taxation Office (ATO) ruling in June this year that the special purpose fund (SPF), worth up to $4.5 billion over 40 years, could not be treated as a charity for tax purposes.