SUPERCentral News
To ensure that all clients SMSF funds are fully SIS compliant, or to update a number of funds from an individual SMSF structure to corporate, your firm may wish to use our special bulk update service.
Have the ScoMo changes (which now seem likely to be implemented - subject to one or two minor changes) amounted to the demise of SMSFs as the preferred private wealth investment vehicle?
Will all nominations lapse after 3 years? Must all nominations be witnessed by 2 independent witnesses (in the manner of a will)? The answers to these questions depends on whether the fund is an SMSF and whether or not the nomination is a lapsing or non-lapsing nomination.
It was only two week ago (more or less) that the election was held. With the Government returned, but with a much reduced majority, will it still proceed with the ScoMo superannuation changes? Unfortunately, this is likely to be the case.
It seems (based upon a response to a question posed during the course of the campaign) that the Government will introduce transitional measures in relation to this $500,000 cap. The transitional measures will apply in two situations.
We all know that life's pretty expensive living in Australia these days - especially if you have a hankering for buying residential real estate in a capital city...
Yes, you heard it right - it's NOT too late to change a Will - even after death! Although, there are a couple of little catches...
As we draw closer to the end of another financial year, we wish to remind you about some of our complimentary services available to you, which certainly bode well for efficiency, and cost saving.
Essentially, collectable and personal-use assets which were acquired by a superannuation fund before 1 July 2011 (collectively called "Old Collectables") must from 1 July 2016 comply with the following 5 rules:
If a contravention occurs - then each individual trustee (and in the case of a corporate trustee, the company itself) is liable for an administrative penalty.
There have been two recent cases which considered whether a parent/child had an interdependency relationship. The first is a Federal Court Case and the second is a decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The 1 July 2016 deadline is fast approaching for trustees with "Old Collectables". This deadline relates to trustees having to satisfy the "5 Collectables" rules in respect of collectables which were purchased before 1 July 2011.
This is a concept introduced into the SIS and tax legislation in 2005. It seems to have been introduced as a means of providing tax free payment of super benefits to an individual who was in a marriage like relationship with a deceased member but which did not satisfy the traditional definition of marriage.
The essence is the relationship is the concept of a "close and personal relationship" which relationship would normally involve "living together" and the provision of "support" by one to the other (whether financial, domestic or personal care).
While a child is necessarily a dependant (for the purposes of the SIS Act) of their parent, a parent is not necessarily a SIS Act dependant of their child.
It seems such a simple question, and yet the answer continues to perplex clients, advisers, lawyers and the tribunals alike! Why is it such an important issue? Well, most obviously it's because a "tax dependant" doesn't need to pay tax on ANY component of a superannuation death benefit if they receive it as a lump sum.
One of the things that the pollies were targeting before the 2016 Federal Budget night was the "inappropriate" use of SMSFs for estate planning.
A step-family is 'a couple family containing one or more children, at least one of whom is the step-child of one of the partners in the couple, and none of whom is the natural or adopted child of both members of the couple' (Australian Family Trends No. 4 - July 2013, The Australian Institute of Family Studies).
Say your clients are husband and wife members of a two member self-managed superannuation fund. Each of them has retired and is receiving an account based pension in the SMSF, and they have nominated each other as their reversionary beneficiary.
Trustees (and their SMSF advisers) must do two things. The first is to determine whether their LRBA is a commercial or non-commercial arrangement. The second (assuming that the LRBA is non-commercial) is to identify any offending elements of the