Overview This article focuses on managing a member’s transfer balance cap (‘TBC’) with a view to minimising excess transfer balance tax (‘ETB Tax’). We provide a brief background to assist members and SMSF trustees to better monitor transfer balance caps (‘TBC’) so they can avoid or minimise ETB Tax. We primarily cover account style pensions [read more]
Recently the ATO’s Acting Assistant Commissioner for Superannuation, Steve Keating, outlined the ATO’s current approach to dealing with SMSFs facing compliance issues and making voluntary disclosures. The ATO has recognised that many Australians are experiencing financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore it is not pursuing its usual audit program. For [read more]
Background The Superannuation Guarantee (‘SG’) amnesty was introduced as law on 6 March 2020 by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Recovering Unpaid Superannuation) Act 2020 (Cth) and the deadline of 7 September 2020 is near. The amnesty enables ‘employers’ to rectify any shortfall and related amounts under the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (Cth) (‘SGAA’) for [read more]
Broadly, foreign purchaser duty surcharge of 7% to 8% applies on top of the normal duty impost (typically between 5% to 6%) where a discretionary trust acquires relevant real estate and the trust is deemed to be a ‘foreign trust’ in the relevant jurisdiction. For simplicity, we refer to ‘discretionary trusts with foreign beneficiaries’ that [read more]
SMSFs paying market linked pensions (‘MLPs’) should carefully review the potential impact of recent changes to the transfer balance cap (‘TBC’) rules where an MLP that commenced prior to 1 July 2017 was commuted or restructured on or after that date. The Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Measures No. 3) Act 2019 (Cth) received royal assent [read more]
The changes In the past few years, various jurisdictions in Australia have introduced legislation to impose duty and land tax surcharges on foreign persons, trusts and companies that purchase or hold certain types of real estate. The State Revenue Legislation Further Amendment Bill 2020 (NSW), which became law on 24 June 2020, contains amendments relating [read more]
DBA Lawyers offers industry-leading pension documentation. In this article, I set out several key benefits of using pension documentation from DBA Lawyers. Our expert lawyers regularly review and revise our documents Our documents are regularly reviewed and revised to ensure they reflect the latest superannuation, tax and related practical and strategic developments. Each suite of [read more]
Overview The article focuses on the tax treatment of superannuation proceeds that are paid to a testamentary trusts and the interaction of div 6AA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) (ITAA 1936’) which covers excepted trust income (‘ETI’). This is an important topic because unless a minor beneficiary is an excepted person or [read more]
Many SMSF advisers approach capital gains tax (‘CGT’) questions that arise for SMSFs with a simple rule of thumb in mind: namely, capital gains made by a fund in connection with a CGT event happening are subject to an effective 10% rate of tax (ie, where the asset has been held for more than 12 [read more]
Overview There have been numerous SMSF advisers putting forward their views on whether an SMSF trustee needs to pass on rent relief to a related party tenant in view of the COVID-19 impact on the economy. The two main opposing views that have captured recent press publicity are summarised as follows: Unless rent relief is [read more]
