SUPERCentral News
If a super fund trustee is paying a benefit to a member and tax must be withheld from the benefit payment, the super fund must register for PAYG Withholding.
It is suggested by certain super industry bodies that the following changes should be considered to improve the position of low account balance/low income super investors.
Legislation to increase the Age Pension Age has now been introduced into Parliament.
While SMSFs are seen as part of the structure of the Super System and to be considered as part of Phase Three, the following issues have been proposed by the Review as suitable issues in respect submissions can be made.
A prominent Melbourne barrister and PhD in Law has called for all discretionary and fixed trust deeds to be reviewed in light of the decision in Bamford v Commissioner of Taxation [2009], a case dealing with aspects of the taxation of trusts.
The Scope Paper provides the following topics which may be considered in each phase
Self Managed Superannuation Funds have not been forgotten and will not be treated as an afterthought.
The Scope Paper indicates that there are four main factors influencing the value of superannuation savings.
The Government Review formerly known as the Sherry Governance Review, and then subsequently called the Cooper Super Review, is now officially the Super System Review.
This important workshop will cover key gearing strategies
The ATO has warned super investors against using scams to access their super before retirement.
A SMSF which lent considerably more than 5% of its assets to a related company has had its loss of compliance status confirmed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Based upon SMSF returns received by the ATO, slightly more than 50% of SMSF members are aged 55 or more, while only 6% of SMSF members are aged under 35.
SMSFs which were registered in the 2007/08 financial year should have lodged their 2008 Annual Return with the ATO by 28 February 2009.
Each two months SUPERCentral’s legal advisors conduct an audit of all the laws, regulations, cases and government announcements that could affect self-managed superannuation in Australia.
Advisers Advanced Workshop on Super Gearing
The threshold at which the Government Co-contribution begins to taper is $31,920 for the 2009/10 financial year. The taper rate for 2009/10 will be at the rate of $3.33 per $100 of income in excess of $31,290.
The failure of trustees to adequately identify property as belonging to the super fund is a commonly reported SIS contravention.
The ATO has identified the following as the most commonly reported breaches of the SIS rules based upon reports made in the 2007/08 financial year:
The low rate cap amount (which applies to lump super benefits received in the period between preservation age and age 60) – has been increased from $140,000 to $145,000.