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Transitional CGT relief

Transitional CGT relief for pension and TRIS assets for FY2017

By Daniel Butler, Director, DBA Lawyers This article provides a broad overview of the capital gains tax (‘CGT’) relief for superannuation funds and explains how the cost base reset relief works in respect of assets used to support a pension or a transition to retirement income stream (‘TRIS’) prior to 1 July 2017. Introduction SMSF [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]

SMSFs and employee share schemes

SMSFs and employee share schemes

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 able to obtain more favourable terms [read more]

smsf automatically reversionary or not

Should a pension from an SMSF be automatically reversionary or not?

Superannuation law is currently undergoing one of the most significant periods of change in almost a decade. This has led to practitioners having to reconsider the conventional wisdom on various issues relating to superannuation. One such area where previous standard practice needs to be revisited is succession planning. In this article I want to focus [read more]

ato's revised view on lrbas and the nali risk

ATO’s revised view on LRBAs and the NALI risk

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]

transfer balance cap explained

The $1.6 million transfer balance cap explained

Introduction The Department of Treasury on 27 September 2016 released the second tranche of exposure draft legislation and explanatory material in relation to the Federal Government’s proposed superannuation reforms. These materials provide long-awaited detail on the workings of the $1.6 million transfer balance cap measure. This article explains some key take-away points about this measure. [read more]

draft legislation released

Draft legislation released for the $1.6 million transfer balance cap: what does it mean for succession planning?

Treasury has released the exposure draft of the Bill that would introduce the $1.6 million transfer balance cap. The draft legislation answers a vital question: what does the $1.6 million transfer balance cap mean for succession planning? (Note that this article is premised on the very dangerous assumption that the ultimate legislation will look exactly [read more]

New aat decision good news SMSF real estate developments via unit trusts

New AAT decision is good news for SMSF real estate developments via unit trusts

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]