A disqualified person is not permitted to be an SMSF trustee. If a disqualified person knows they are disqualified and nevertheless acts as an SMSF trustee, they will be committing an offence. However, some may not realise they are a disqualified person. This discussion covers the three main ways that a person becomes a disqualified [read more]
OVERVIEW This article highlights some of the issues that accountants that have decided not to obtain an Australian financial services licence (‘AFSL’) or become an authorised representative (‘AR’) of an AFSL holder need to consider in view of the removal of the recognised accountants’ exemption from 1 July 2016. In addition, this article is also [read more]
With a DBA Lawyers’ SMSF deed, new members can be admitted to an SMSF on a conditional basis. Needless to say, having a DBA Lawyers’ SMSF deed is a pre-requisite for having conditional members since it has all the requisite provisions. Who is a conditional member? The DBA Lawyers’ SMSF deed allows a conditional member [read more]
The new AFSL regime for accountants and advisers without a licence starts today! For many SMSF advisers this means big changes to their business procedures. For those SMSF professionals who are not obtaining a limited AFS licence and who are not becoming an authorised representative of an AFSL holder, it will become vital to properly [read more]
We are about to enter a period of substantial reform. We have therefore prepared a brief ‘stock take’ of what the reform proposals look like as at the start of July 2016. In particular, we consider the proposals announced in the 3 May 2016 Federal Budget by the Liberal Government. We also briefly compare these [read more]
This article looks at whether a parent and deceased child can be in an interdependency relationship for the purpose of satisfying the definition of death benefits dependant in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) (‘ITAA97’). This article follows the AAT decision in TBCL and Commissioner of Taxation (Taxation) [2016] AATA 264 (‘TBCL’). [read more]
ATO extends the deadline to 31 January 2017 The ATO extension to 31 January 2017 is most welcome to alleviate the concerns that many SMSFs are facing in view of the need to act swiftly to clean up related party and non-bank limited recourse borrowing arrangements (‘LRBA’). Many SMSFs in particular have had to look [read more]
The May 2016 budget proposals have generated an incredible amount of commentary, not only from industry participants, but also from the mainstream media outlets. There is no doubting the importance of superannuation and the role it plays for many in ensuring they have an adequate standard of living in retirement. This article considers the impact [read more]
The proposed $1.6 million balance cap will, if introduced, will result in substantial changes from 1 July 2017 and is likely to generate significantly more tax on the payment of death benefits. Summary of the new cap The Liberal Government’s balance cap announcement on 3 May 2016 involves: A maximum $1.6 million (plus earnings thereon) [read more]
This article considers some of the issues associated with whether a pension payable to a member can be converted to a ‘lifetime’ pension, such that the pension is automatically reversionary to the member’s spouse on their death, and then any remaining capital reverts, for example, to the deceased member’s children from a previous marriage. Case [read more]
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