Freedom of Information (FOI) laws provides individuals and private entities with powerful rights to access information held by government bodies. This article considers a taxpayer’s rights to make an FOI request to obtain information from the ATO in respect of their tax affairs. We discuss who can and how to lodge a request, the likely [read more]
This webinar aims to be the most comprehensive* session regarding whether to make an SMSF pension reversionary or not. Previously, due to the TBC regime, there has been a preference to make pensions reversionary. However, with the potential Division 296 ($3M+) tax regime, some clients might now want to change to non-reversionary SMSF pensions. The [read more]
Background/overview As a lawyer, I do a lot of work advising and representing approved SMSF auditors who the ATO are reviewing/auditing. I also advise and represent auditors who the ATO have referred to ASIC. Accordingly, the recent Sidhu decision very much piqued my interest. This decision involved an approved SMSF auditor (Mr Sidhu) who the [read more]
Introduction The ATO is placing increased scrutiny on rental and property related matters as recent ATO data suggests that around 9 out of 10 taxpayers are not meeting the current tax rules. This is interesting as the superannuation rules add greater complexity on the normal tax rules when an SMSF invests in a rental property, [read more]
The ATO says that ‘it has become common within some parts of the superannuation industry for a person to pay an expense on behalf of a superannuation fund.’ In this article, we consider whether that can cause non-arm’s length income (NALI) and/or a contribution. How the situation might arise Consider a situation where a related [read more]
Under the DBA Lawyers’ company constitution, a director is empowered to nominate a successor director (SD) to be appointed as a director upon the occurrence of their loss of capacity or death (ie, a ‘trigger event’). Upon a trigger event, the nominated SD is automatically appointed as a director, provided they consent and either hold [read more]
In April 2025, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia (Full Court) handed down the latest decision in respect of the Merchant group. This decision is not directly about SMSFs. However, it nevertheless contains an important lesson for SMSFs. The full decision is available at <https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2025/56.html> Facts In the 2015 financial year, the [read more]
The ATO can disqualify an individual from having an SMSF. However, the ATO has discretion as to when it exercises this power. Contraventions can occur without disqualification. A recent ART decision sheds light on when disqualification might not occur. The ART decision is Omibiyi and FCT [2025] ARTA 553. The full text is available at [read more]
We all know that, since 2007, new SMSF trustees/directors have to sign a trustee declaration pursuant to s 104A of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (Cth). However, how long must the declarations be retained for? Do the declarations only need to be retained for 10 years? Also, what to do if the declarations are [read more]
In this article, we consider the implications for SMSFs of the recent Federal Court of Australia (Full Court) decision in Commissioner of Taxation v Bendel [2025] FCAFC 15 (Bendel). In particular, we consider Bendel’s impact for SMSFs with investments in pre-1999 unit trusts. This article contains many generalisations and simplifications. For the full text of [read more]
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