The Government has announced it will pass legislation to extend the tax-free status of income supporting a superannuation pension until a deceased member’s benefit has been paid from the fund. This will be effective from 1 July 2012 and will also apply for self-managed superannuation funds.
In a rare win for the taxpayer, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has set aside the decision of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to issue a non-compliance notice to the trustee of a self managed superannuation fund in Pabian Park Pty Ltd Superannuation Benefits Fund v FCT.
A recent Australian Tax Office (ATO) interpretative decision has confirmed that a member can make a contribution to a self-managed super fund (SMSF) prior to 30 June 2012, claim the deduction for the 2012 financial year, and the trustee of the SMSF can allocate the contribution to the member in July 2012 so that it counts toward the contribution caps in the 2012/13 financial year.
On 23 May 2012, the ATO released SMSFR 2012/1 confirming its position on the application of a number of key concepts for limited recourse borrowing arrangements by trustees of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs).
The new Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) started on 30 January 2012.
On 6 February 2012 the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) handed down its decision in Montgomery Wools Pty Ltd as trustee for Montgomery Wools Pty Ltd Super Fund v Commissioner of Taxation [2012] AATA 61.
Individual versus corporate trustee – one of the common questions for SMSF trustees.
On 13 October 2011, amendments were introduced to make directors personally liable for unpaid superannuation contributions where the company does not comply with its superannuation guarantee obligations.
It is easy to forget that income of a superannuation fund can be taxed at the top tax rate, even if the fund is in pension phase.
On 14 September 2011 the ATO issued draft ruling SMSFR 2011/D1.
The ATO has released TR2011/D3 about when a pension starts and stops.
Following the High Court decision in Bamford, we have reviewed a lot of unit trust deeds and have seen many unit trusts with superannuation funds as unitholders. The danger is that when a superannuation fund holds units in a typical unit trust, there is a significant risk the ATO will argue that the income distributed from the unit trust to the trustee of the superannuation fund is “non arms length” income – in which case the fund will be taxed at the top marginal rate of 46.5%.