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downsizer superannuation contributions

Key questions answered for downsizer superannuation contributions

Daniel Butler ([email protected]), Director and Bryce Figot, Special Counsel, DBA Lawyers In the Federal Budget released in May 2017, the government announced an additional $300,000 of superannuation contributions for those aged 65 or more and who sell their home. However, the initial announcement left a number of key questions unanswered. One key question is as [read more]

moneyinglass

Is there any benefit in commuting a market linked pension from 1 July 2017?

Market linked pensions and transfer balance cap provisions Where a market linked pension (‘MLP’) is being paid just before 1 July 2017, the MLP will fall within the definition of a capped defined benefit income stream for the purposes of the transfer balance cap provisions. Importantly, the total balance of an MLP commenced just before [read more]

pension

What’s the status of the transition to retirement income stream?

Daniel Butler ([email protected]), Director, DBA Lawyers The transition to retirement income stream (‘TRIS’) is entering a new era on 1 July 2017 where most will want the TRIS to enter retirement phase as soon as possible to gain access to an earnings tax exemption. A new law has provided a roadmap for this TRIS reclassification, [read more]

pension documents in shape

Don’t get left behind — get your pension documents in shape for 1 July 2017

DBA Lawyers has recently been inundated with requests for up to date pension documents. Our suite of pension documents is fully up to date, including partial commutation documents with a tick-a-box option allowing the partial commutation of pension capital to just under a member’s personal transfer balance cap. Also, changes to the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) [read more]

acquire residential property

Can an SMSF trustee ever acquire residential property from a related party?

Many would say that the trustee of an SMSF is prohibited from ever acquiring residential property from related parties of the SMSF (including members). However, there are three main circumstances where this could happen without contravening superannuation law. All of the circumstances involve the concept of ‘business real property’. Business real property Broadly, SMSF trustees [read more]

corporate SMSF trustee

You should have a sole purpose corporate SMSF trustee

Australian Taxation Office statistics suggest that a large majority of SMSFs have individual trustees. This is troubling, considering that sole purpose corporate SMSF trustees have been known to be superior for many years. This covers the main reasons to have a sole purpose corporate trustee. The ‘sole purpose’ indicates that the company only acts in [read more]

ATO deadline looms

31 January 2017 ATO deadline looms for LRBAs

By: Daniel Butler, DBA Lawyers The ATO recently released PCG 2016/5 frequently asked questions, which serves as a handy reminder of the 31 January 2017 deadline. Following the release of PCG 2016/5 in April 2016, the ATO initially required each SMSF trustee with a non-bank limited recourse borrowing arrangement (‘LRBAs’) to ensure it was on [read more]

Superannuation reforms – a snapshot as at 20 December 2016

By: Daniel Butler, Director, DBA Lawyers and Philippa Briglia The information below is a broad snapshot summary of recently enacted super reform measures as at 20 December 2016. Note, further reforms have yet to issue. The reforms outlined below largely apply from 1 July 2017 unless stated otherwise. Transfer balance cap A transfer balance cap [read more]

ato withholds an smsf's abn

ATO withholds an SMSF’s ABN from the Super Fund Lookup — can anything be done?

The ATO’s online Super Fund Lookup (www.superfundlookup.gov.au) (‘Lookup’) contains the ATO’s record of the current compliance status of SMSFs. Employers and large superannuation funds can utilise the Lookup to determine the credentials of the SMSF (eg, whether it is treated as complying) for the purposes of super contributions and rollovers. In the normal course of [read more]