SUPERCentral News
The “Over 50’s”Transitional Cap is not indexed. Contributions arising from Personal Injury payments are not subject to any cap – so there is no cap to index.
Each week Aunt Annie answers the best question she receives about aspects of the rules relating to borrowing by self-managed super funds.
The ATO has issued a Taxpayer Alert (TA 2009/16) dealing with arrangements designed to circumvent the in-house asset rules.
Generally, a contribution made by cheque will be treated as being received by the trustee of the super fund on the date the cheque is received.
The first thing to do is to check that there has been no misreporting of contributions. The assessment may have been issued simply because CGT contributions have been reported in the SMSF Annual Return at the incorrect label.
SMSFs must report all contributions received in respect of members during the 2008/09 year in the SMSF 2009 Annual Return. The Annual Return includes the fund’s regulatory return and income tax return and must be lodged when the fund’s income tax is due.
The ATO has released its SMSF statistical report for March 2009.
ATO information indicates that 90% of all SMSFs have two members or less.
The Draft Ruling suggests that a deduction for a contribution which is made to the reserve of a Super Fund will not qualify as a deduction as the contribution is not made for the purpose of providing superannuation benefits for a particular member or class of members.
Intestacy law in NSW will change soon as part of the process to bring all state succession laws in Australia into line.
If a guarantor of a borrowing by a super fund discharges the debt of the super fund, the discharge will be treated as a contribution to the fund.
If a borrowing by the super fund (eg pursuant to a super gearing or instalment warrant arrangement) is forgiven, the amount of the debt forgiven will be treated as a contribution to the super fund.
These will be accepted as a contribution. The amount of the contribution will be the market value of the asset as at the date of transfer.
The payment of an expense of the Fund (eg accounting fees, tax) will be treated as a contribution to the superannuation fund by the person who made the payment.
A contribution by cheque or other negotiable instrument (eg promissory note) will be taken as a contribution on physical receipt by the trustee of the cheque or instrument subject to the following rules:
The ATO has released in draft its ruminations on superannuation contributions by way of a draft Taxation Ruling – TR 2009/D3.
The ATO has taken an economist’s view of a contribution. Consequently, a contribution is seen as any amount which increases the capital of a super fund.
As part of the Budget 2009 changes, the Government announced that the 50% concession in the minimum pension limit which applies to account-based, transition to retirement, allocated and market linked pensions will continue for 2009/10.
Senator Sherry is keen on Super Trustees becoming responsible by adopting ESG principles when making investment decisions.
The Fair Work Act will change the existing workplace laws as significantly as Work Choices did only a few years ago.