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Author Archive | Shaun Backhaus

About Shaun Backhaus

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Discretionary trusts — NSW duty & land tax surcharges — act before 31 December 2020 or incur extra NSW tax

Discretionary trusts — NSW duty & land tax surcharges — act before 31 December 2020 or incur extra NSW tax

The changes In the past few years, various jurisdictions in Australia have introduced legislation to impose duty and land tax surcharges on foreign persons, trusts and companies that purchase or hold certain types of real estate. The State Revenue Legislation Further Amendment Bill 2020 (NSW), which became law on 24 June 2020, contains amendments relating [read more]

Advantages of the DBA Lawyers SMSF deed (2020-21)

Advantages of the DBA Lawyers SMSF deed (2020-21)

DBA Lawyers provides the best SMSF governing rules and related documents, with numerous value-added features. This article briefly explains why our SMSF documents are the best available. Recent changes to DBA Lawyers’ SMSF governing rules Our latest DBA Lawyers’ SMSF governing rules (version 2020/21) comes with the following upgrades: enhanced binding death benefit nomination (‘BDBN’) [read more]

DBA Lawyers - Ensure an SMSF meets the residency tests

Ensure an SMSF meets the residency tests

The consequences of an SMSF failing the residency rules can be automatic non-complying status. This will broadly mean the entire amount of the SMSF’s assets, less non-concessional contributions, are taxed at 45% in the year of non-compliance (47% during temporary budget repair levy financial years of 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17). The result of this is [read more]

Should an SMSF have a tenants in common agreement?

Should an SMSF have a tenants in common agreement?

Introduction Real estate is a common and popular investment for SMSFs. Indeed, the ATO’s SMSF statistical report for the quarter ended 30 September 2019 shows that SMSFs held around $35 billion in residential real property and around $64.6 billion in non-residential property, ie, around $99.6 billion worth of real property. It is also reasonably popular [read more]

Victoria, NSW and Tasmania foreign purchaser duty update — Discretionary Trusts

Victoria, NSW and Tasmania foreign purchaser duty update — Discretionary Trusts

Since the foreign purchaser duty surcharge was first introduced in Victoria in 2015, it has been introduced in NSW, Tasmania, WA and SA (and only in respect of land tax in the ACT). The various changes in law and administrative practice in these jurisdictions, has made this a challenging area of law. In particular, the [read more]

NSW Duty and Land Tax changes

NSW duty and land tax surcharge changes — action needed before 31 December 2019

By Daniel Butler ([email protected]), Director and Shaun Backhaus, ([email protected]), Lawyer, DBA Lawyers Upcoming changes There are currently changes before the NSW Parliament which, if passed into law, will have an impact for any discretionary trust that holds residential property in NSW. To minimise any risk, trustees and advisers should take action to be ready for [read more]

warning-sign

Victorian SMSF duty on transfers in kind

Shaun Backhaus, Lawyer ([email protected]) and Daniel Butler, Director ([email protected]), DBA Lawyers Many advisers are aware of the potential duty exemption available under s 41A of the Duties Act 2000 (Vic) where dutiable property such as real estate is transferred to a member of an SMSF in respect of their interest in the fund. This potential exemption may also apply [read more]

Do-foreign-purchaser-duty-surcharges-apply-to-SMSFs

Do foreign purchaser duty surcharges apply to SMSFs?

Shaun Backhaus, Lawyer ([email protected]) and Daniel Butler, Director ([email protected]), DBA Lawyers With the imposition of foreign purchaser duty continuing to be implemented around the country there is a need to determine how this additional tax will apply to SMSFs. Background Most jurisdictions imposing some form of ‘foreign purchaser duty’ include a ‘foreign trust’ or ‘trustee [read more]