SUPERCentral News
The ATO has just released the Super Thresholds for 2013/14. The concessional and non-concessional contribution caps are unchanged due to the pause in indexation which applies for 2013/14.
From 1 July 2013, related party asset rules will be extended to cover disposals to related parties. Currently, the related party asset rules deal only with acquisitions from related parties and not disposals to related parties.
The ATO has recently revised these documents and in doing so has made some interesting changes to the Trustee Declaration, the Key Messages Statement, the disclaimer that SMSFs are not covered by the financial assistance scheme and the warning that trustees should regularly assess whether an SMSF is or remains appropriate for the members.
Catch-all and compliance provisions are a feature of some SMSF trust deeds, often those prepared by authors who practice only part-time in superannuation. This paper summarises the important issues relating to those clauses and shows why they provide false security for trustees who rely on them.
The ATO has just announced an important administrative concession dealing with the tax consequences of pension underpayments – that is, when the pension payments for an account pension in a financial year fall short of the minimum required amount.
Click here for more information about our new combined Company Establishment and New Fund online order form.
The ATO has also expressed concerns with LRBAs involving unit trusts.
Buy/sell arrangements set the ground rules between co-owners of a business (shareholders in a company, partners in a firm or unit holders in a unit trust) as to what is to happen if a co-owner dies, becomes totally and permanently disabled or suffers some illness or trauma that will likely require them to leave the business.
What happens when you take a super benefit before the permitted time?
In this ATO alert, the ATO has provided advance warning as to its concerns with limited recourse borrowing arrangements entered into by self managed superannuation funds.
New ATO Taxpayer Alert not a problem for our clients.
Click here to see what main areas the ATO will be looking at in 2012/13
Click here to see latest updates to the Townsends' Guide to SMSF Borrowing Volumes I & II.
Defined benefit pensions were used to address RBL problems - that is removing RBL problems.
Proposed amendments to the WA Duties Act will permit transfers of real estate from SMSFs to the Legal Personal Representative or dependants of a deceased member to be charged with nominal duty (ie $50) rather than normal duty rates.
In a recently released Interpretative Decision, the ATO was asked whether a trustee could refund an in specie contribution of listed shares, the value of which exceeded $150,000.
Possibly the most important thing about the MYEFO is that the Government did not announce any changes to transition to retirement pensions or limited recourse borrowing arrangements.
Another taxpayer has had a win against the ATO. The taxpayer was issued with an excess contributions assessment and, after the required objection procedures had been completed, referred the matter to the AAT.
While the most significant of the reforms arising from the Cooper Review apply to the non-SMSF superannuation section, some reforms do affect the SMSF superannuation sector.
Super Assets Keep Increasing