Categories | DBA News

A Buy-Sell Agreement (‘BSA’) governs a vital aspect of a business relationship. As a bare minimum, a BSA provides for the compulsory acquisition of a co-proprietor’s equity in the business on their death or incapacity. If there is no BSA, then on a proprietor’s death their interest in the business is dealt with under their [read more]

Planning succession to the role of appointor is a vital step that needs to be undertaken for each discretionary trust. The appointor holds the ultimate control over the trust as they can hire/fire the trustee. Unless succession is addressed, the trust’s assets may end up in the wrong hands. A decision needs to be made [read more]

A new form for Enduring Powers of Attorney (‘EPOA’) commenced in Victoria on 1 April 2004. An EPOA authorises one or more persons (‘Attorneys’) to undertake any legal or financial transaction on behalf of the person making the power (‘Donor’). The power is enduring as it continues even though the Donor loses legal capacity. However, [read more]

As you may be aware, there have been substantial reforms in recent times impacting self managed superannuation funds (‘SMSF’). Recent changes include the following: Contribution Rules Government ‘co-contributions’ can, from mid 2003, be made to funds with appropriate powers in their trust deed. This provides a potential maximum of $1,500 in co-contributions by the government [read more]

The May Budget resulted in several significant changes to reserving strategies in superannuation funds. Contributions Reserving The new SIS Regulations preclude the payment of employer contributions directly to a contributions reserve thereby postponing the surcharge liability until subsequent allocation to a member’s account. From 12 May 2004, the trustee of an accumulation fund must generally [read more]

New Transitional Relief New transitional relief (‘New TR’) became law on 25 June 2004. This is supplementary to the transitional relief that became law on 12 May 2004 (‘Existing TR’) for SMSFs providing defined benefit pensions (‘DBP’). A DBP is any pension other than an allocated or market linked (aka ‘growth’) pension. Broadly, the New [read more]

The ATO recently issued four Interpretative Decisions, ID 2004/248, 249, 250 & 251 on artwork investments by SMSFs. SMSFs that invest in artwork must satisfy a range of tests, especially if the artwork is used by the members. First of all, artwork owned by a SMSF and displayed in a member’s home or office is [read more]

The 2004 Budget has introduced a number of unexpected changes to the ability of self managed superannuation funds (‘SMSFs’) to pay Defined Benefit Pensions (‘DBPs’); ie, broadly, any pension other than an allocated pension (‘AP’). Up until 11 May 2004, SMSFs were free to provide (assuming their trust deeds permitted) a range of DBPs including [read more]

The recent South Australian Supreme Court case of Hanel v O’Neil [2003] SASC 409 is causing uncertainty in relation to a very basic asset protection strategy. The court held that a director was personally liable for debts incurred by the corporate trustee of a family trust even though the trustee was covered by a right [read more]

This article highlights an important change applying to pensions commencing on or after 1 October 2003. We will first discuss the new rules having regard to allocated pensions (AP) and then briefly discuss their application to complying pensions. Broadly, the new rules require the minimum payment in the financial year a pension is commuted to [read more]