The recent decision of Ackinclose v Commissioner of State Revenue [2026] QCAT 312 provides important guidance on the circumstances in which land held by an SMSF may be aggregated with land held by a discretionary family trust for Queensland land tax purposes. The matter concerned a husband and wife who acted as trustees of both an [read more]
Following the Government’s proposed 30% tax on discretionary trust (DT) distributions from 1 July 2028 announced in the 12 May 2026 Federal Budget some have been considering setting up companies with more than one share class. This is based on the thinking that this will provide greater flexibility. However, there are a number of tax [read more]
Background/overview Failing to keep your SMSF deed up to date can lead to the SMSF failing to optimise tax and contribution concessions, unnecessarily restricting investment opportunities, and can result in funds being unable to function appropriately if a member loses capacity or dies. Deciding when, and with whom, to update the governing rules of an [read more]
About our governing rules DBA Lawyers is Australia’s leading SMSF law firm. We have been refining our SMSF governing rules and related documents for well over 30 years, making it the best SMSF rules available. Our SMSF governing rules contain numerous ‘value-added’ advantages that are not available in most other offerings. Additionally, our SMSF rules [read more]
OVERVIEW In April 2025, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia handed down its decision in Merchant v Commissioner of Taxation [2025] FCAFC 56. This decision was appealed to the High Court, whose decision is still to be finalised. This article is therefore prepared on the basis of the Full Court decision and [read more]
