Categories | DBA News

This ruling is a major step forward in clarifying an area of uncertainty. Clients can now self-assess whether an SMSF’s income is ‘special income’. This will give scope to SMSFs to hold shares in private companies without having to pay punitive tax rates! In short, the ruling can provide valuable opportunities for those who plan [read more]

UTs can offer considerable flexibility for SMSFs wanting to acquire property. Where an SMSF has insufficient funds to purchase property, a UT can instead be used to purchase the property and the SMSF makes creeping acquisitions of units in the UT over time (eg, by acquiring units from unit holders or by the UT issuing [read more]

On 28 June 2006, the Commissioner issued Taxation Ruling TR 2006/4. This ruling provides clarity and insight on the ATO’s position regarding trust cloning. What is trust cloning? Trust cloning involves setting up a trust that is identical to (ie, a ‘clone’ of) the original trust. Assets are then transferred from the original trust to [read more]

The last edition of DBA News covered the proposed changes to superannuation as announced in the 2006 Federal Budget. These proposals have created some uncertainty. We outline some of the planning opportunities that advisers should keep in mind in the lead-up to and beyond 1 July 2007. Employer eligible termination payments From 1 July 2007, [read more]

On 20 April 2006, the ATO issued its final ruling TR 2006/2 on service entities and guide ‘Your service entity arrangements’. This follows a lengthy and extensive consultation process. We summarise below the latest changes made by the ATO in relation to service entity arrangements. The Ruling The ruling confirms the ATO’s long standing view [read more]

Applying to the Commissioner for a PR may be desirable for seeking clarification of the Commissioner’s treatment of a proposed transaction. Alternatively, a PR may be seen as a strategic tool to be used in bringing about the jurisdiction of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (‘AAT’) to review a decision of the Commissioner or to appeal [read more]

Of the latest SMSF strategies available in the market place, the most flexible and sought after by members of SMSFs are superannuation contributions splitting and the transition to retirement pensions (or non-commutable pensions) (‘NCP’). These strategies provide members of SMSFs with the flexibility to draw an income stream while they continue to work and to [read more]

The revised regulations that affect the payment of allocated pensions (‘AP’) and market linked pensions (‘MLP’) were finalised in mid December 2005 with a number significant changes. This edition of news highlights the main changes and includes a table of pensions and income streams payable from an SMSF. Allocated Pension Changes New pension valuation factors [read more]

From 1 January 2006 a higher scale of land tax rates will apply to land held by trusts. Broadly, unless a nomination (see below) is made: there will generally be a 0.375% surcharge applying to land held by a trust (the surcharge tapers off above $1.62 million of unimproved land value and is eliminated above [read more]

The government has recently released regulations that affect the payment of allocated pensions (‘AP’) and market linked pensions (‘MLP’). In particular, the regulations provide greater planning opportunities for pensioners from 1 January 2006*. Allocated Pension Changes New factors will be introduced that reflect current life expectancy tables. The factors will apply to APs starting on [read more]