Daniel Butler ([email protected]), Director, and William Fettes ([email protected]) Senior Associate, DBA Lawyers A recent unanimous decision of the Full Federal Court represents a major win for SMSFs and taxpayers on the topic of the sole purpose test. This decision overturns the primary judge’s decision at first instance in Aussiegolfa Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation [read more]
Daniel Butler ([email protected]), Director and William Fettes ([email protected]), Senior Associate, DBA Lawyers Due to the importance of total superannuation balance (‘TSB’) testing under the major superannuation reforms, fund members have a strong incentive to carefully monitor their TSB over time and plan accordingly to moderate their TSB to fall within certain key thresholds. In part 1 [read more]
By: Daniel Butler, Director ([email protected]), DBA Lawyers Most people by now may be aware of the non-resident capital gains tax withholding (‘Withholding Regime’), which applies to vendors disposing of certain taxable property. Broadly, the Withholding Regime was introduced to allow the Australian government to obtain tax in respect of foreign vendors. However, the Withholding Regime [read more]
Daniel Butler, Director ([email protected]) We have recently experienced substantial superannuation changes during the period of 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018. I therefore provide a brief ‘stocktake’ of the changes introduced by the current Coalition Government. A number of these policies were adverse to many members. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said that the [read more]
By William Fettes ([email protected]), Senior Associate, DBA Lawyers The starting point at general law is that legal title to fund assets must generally be held in name of the current trustees of the fund. However, this is not always possible, eg, where an SMSF trustee is unable to hold legal title, and title is instead [read more]
By Shaun Backhaus, Lawyer and Daniel Butler , Director DBA Lawyers DBA Lawyers can supply a discretionary trust deed to exclude foreign persons from being beneficiaries. We do not automatically exclude foreign persons as this may exclude beneficiaries forever and may have substantial long-term implications. Moreover, with eight different jurisdictions with different legislation and with [read more]
Daniel Butler ([email protected]), Director and William Fettes ([email protected]), Senior Associate, DBA Lawyers An individual’s total superannuation balance (‘TSB’) determines many of their superannuation rights, entitlements and obligations. Accordingly, there is a strong incentive for individuals to carefully monitor their TSB over time, particularly towards the end of a financial year (‘FY’) when most TSB thresholds are [read more]
Daniel Butler ([email protected]), Director, DBA Lawyers This article highlights some reasons why a contribution reserving strategy may be used by an SMSF, and also briefly discusses the risks and some of the associated compliance issues. Reasons for engaging in contribution reserving There are a range of reasons why SMSF trustees engage in contribution reserving. For [read more]
Daniel Butler ([email protected]), Director, DBA Lawyers On 24 May 2018, the government announced a 12 month superannuation guarantee (‘SG’) amnesty (‘Amnesty’) that proposes to give employers an opportunity to rectify past SG non-compliance without penalty. If the Treasury Laws Amendment (2018 Superannuation Measures No. 1) Bill 2018 (‘SG Bill’) is ever made law, the Amnesty [read more]
By Daniel Butler, Director, DBA Lawyers In Australia, death duties (broadly inheritance taxes) were abolished in 1979. In the realm of superannuation, however, when a member dies, recipients of superannuation death benefits are sometimes liable to pay tax. Who doesn’t have to pay the super death tax? Superannuation death benefits are received tax free by [read more]
