Hughes v Commissioner of State Revenue [2026] VCAT 806 (Hughes) is the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s (Tribunal) first decision on the VRLT holiday home exemption (HHE) under section 88A of the Land Tax Act 2005 (Vic) (LTA). This decision provides useful guidance on how vacant residential land tax (VRLT) operates in practice. Are you [read more]
How do you wind up an SMSF part way through a financial year? On its face, this is practically a difficult question. It is difficult because, in order to wind up an SMSF, the trustee must lodge with the ATO the SMSF’s final return. However, the ATO has not released the current financial year annual [read more]
The proposal to introduce a minimum 30% tax on income of discretionary trusts (DTs) means that each unit trust deed should be reviewed to determine whether it qualifies as a fixed trust. Unless the trust qualifies as a fixed trust or satisfies another exception, the trust is likely to be subject to the new 30% [read more]
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]
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]
Accounting firms that set up and manage complex tax structures, such as family discretionary trusts (FTs), unit trusts and self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), should be aware of the relevant clauses of their PI policy. The ATO’s renewed focus on certain tax issues relating to these structures, including non-arm’s length income (NALI), Division 7A loans, [read more]
DBA Lawyers latest SMSF governing rules and related documents include many 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 2026-27) includes the following updates: powers surrounding management and provision of information for the [read more]
A recent court decision held that a change of director in a company could give rise to duty on the value of any dutiable property held by trustee of a unit trust. After the unfavourable Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) decision in Tao v Commissioner of State Revenue (Review and Regulation) [2024] VCAT 637, [read more]
New Anti-Money Laundering Requirements for Legal Services From 1 July 2026, Australian law firms are subject to new obligations under Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) regime. These changes are designed to help prevent the misuse of legal services for money laundering, terrorism financing, fraud, sanctions evasion and other financial crimes. As a result, [read more]
