By Joseph Cheung, Lawyer and David Oon, Senior Associate, DBA Lawyers A reg 13.22C non-geared unit trust (‘NGUT’) is not included as an in-house asset (‘IHA’) at the time of the initial investment provided certain criteria is met. Some trustees may think that they are investing in a reg 13.22C NGUT on the basis that the [read more]
Some may think that property development in an SMSF contravenes superannuation law. However, that is overstating the position. There is no blanket ban on property development in SMSFs. Rather, like many investments an SMSF can make, the key to compliance is on how the investment occurs. Extreme caution should be exercised before and during, since [read more]
Co-author by Daniel Butler, Director, DBA Lawyers Introduction We have had numerous queries about the proportioning rule over recent times. A common query is how does the proportioning rule apply and how do you calculate the tax free and taxable components in a superannuation benefit. This article is to assist you understand the fundamentals of [read more]
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]
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]
Co-author Gary Chau, Lawyer, DBA Lawyers This article examines whether an SMSF can acquire shares offered under an employee share scheme (‘ESS’). What is an ESS? Broadly, an ESS (also known as an employee share plan or employee share ownership plan) typically gives employees the opportunity to purchase shares in their employer. Usually, employees are [read more]
By: Daniel Butler, Director and Rebecca James, Special Counsel Overview of TD 2016/16 The Australian Taxation Office (‘ATO’) released Taxation Determination TD 2016/16 — Income tax: will the ordinary or statutory income of a self-managed superannuation fund be non-arm’s length income under subsection 295-550(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) when the parties to [read more]
The recent decision of FLZY and Commissioner of Taxation [2016] AATA 348 is good news for SMSF real estate developments via unit trusts. Background Many SMSFs want to have some investment exposure to real estate development. A popular structure is for the SMSF to invest in a related unit trust and then the unit trust [read more]
Overview The Financial Ombudsman Service (‘FOS’) is the main external disputes resolution (‘EDR’) for accountants and financial advisers who have an Australian Financial Services Licence (‘AFSL’). Advisers who have an AFSL must be a party to an EDR process. Where an adviser is an authorised representative of another entity’s AFSL, they are subject to the [read more]
A desire for some people who exit large funds and start a new SMSF is to leave a portion of their superannuation in the large fund. This is often because it can be relatively simple to retain life, total and permanent disability (‘TPD’) and income protection insurance cover in a large fund. While the above [read more]
