Daniel Butler, Director ([email protected]) and Shaun Backhaus, Lawyer ([email protected]) The next Federal election, according to our current Prime Minister Mr Scott Morrison, will be held in May 2019 and, if the Labor Government is elected, significant change is likely. Thus, a brief ‘stock take’ of what the superannuation landscape will look like under a Labor Government [read more]
By Shaun Backhaus ([email protected]), Lawyer and Bryce Figot([email protected]), Special Counsel, DBA Lawyers Background On 21 November 2018 Treasury released a paper with findings and draft proposals from its review into the rules governing the early release of superannuation benefits. Treasury is currently seeking views from interested stakeholders. This review was carried out in light of [read more]
By: Daniel Butler, Director ([email protected]), DBA Lawyers The decision of D18-19\002 is what we understand to be the first decision of a court or tribunal requiring a trustee of a superannuation fund to refund fees debited to a member and paid to financial advisers who did not provide any services to the member. Background The [read more]
By: Daniel Butler, Director ([email protected]) and Bryce Figot, Special Counsel ([email protected]), DBA Lawyers The recent decision by the Supreme Court of Queensland in the case of Re Narumon Pty Ltd [2018] QSC 185 (‘Narumon’) again confirms the importance of having a quality SMSF document supplier. More specifically, it shows how poorly drafted binding death benefit nomination [read more]
By Christian Pakpahan, Lawyer and Daniel Butler, Director,DBA Lawyers Introduction On 17 July 2018, Treasury released exposure draft legislation which broadly extends the operation of SuperStream to cover self managed superannuation funds (‘SMSFs’). Currently SMSFs only need to be able to receive contributions and rollovers through SuperStream. Current Legislation Currently SMSFs are only required to [read more]
Daniel Butler ([email protected]), Director, and William Fettes ([email protected]) Senior Associate, DBA Lawyers A recent unanimous decision of the Full Federal Court represents a major win for SMSFs and taxpayers on the topic of the sole purpose test. This decision overturns the primary judge’s decision at first instance in Aussiegolfa Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation [read more]
Daniel Butler, Director ([email protected]) We have recently experienced substantial superannuation changes during the period of 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018. I therefore provide a brief ‘stocktake’ of the changes introduced by the current Coalition Government. A number of these policies were adverse to many members. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said that the [read more]
By William Fettes ([email protected]), Senior Associate, DBA Lawyers The starting point at general law is that legal title to fund assets must generally be held in name of the current trustees of the fund. However, this is not always possible, eg, where an SMSF trustee is unable to hold legal title, and title is instead [read more]
By Shaun Backhaus, Lawyer and Daniel Butler , Director DBA Lawyers DBA Lawyers can supply a discretionary trust deed to exclude foreign persons from being beneficiaries. We do not automatically exclude foreign persons as this may exclude beneficiaries forever and may have substantial long-term implications. Moreover, with eight different jurisdictions with different legislation and with [read more]
By Christian Pakpahan, Lawyer and Daniel Butler, Director, DBA Lawyers On 24 May 2018, the government announced a 12 month superannuation guarantee (‘SG’) amnesty (‘Amnesty’) that proposes to give employers an opportunity to rectify past SG non-compliance without penalty. If the Treasury Laws Amendment (2018 Superannuation Measures No. 1) Bill 2018 (‘SG Bill’) is ever [read more]
