In mid 2011 the ATO issued a draft taxation ruling which represented the Commissioner’s preliminary view about the way in which the relevant taxation provisions applied upon the commencement and cessation of a pension or, as it is referred to in the draft ruling, a superannuation income stream. Whilst there are aspects of the draft
Read More…

In 2009 the Government commissioned an independent review of the governance, efficiency, structure and operation of the superannuation system (the Cooper Review). When the final report was received by the Government in June 2010, it contained a number of recommendations applicable to self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs). A number of these recommendations have been recently given
Read More…

As outlined in Client Alert no 6 – TFN Withholding for Closely held Trusts, the government introduced legislation which applies from 1 July 2010 which requires “closely held trusts” to withhold tax from distributions to beneficiaries where the beneficiary has not provided its tax file number (TFN) to the trust and the trust has not
Read More…

The government has introduced legislation from 1 July 2012 to means test an individual’s entitlement to the rebate on their private health insurance premiums. Prior to 1 July 2012, individuals who had a complying health insurance policy with a registered health insurer were entitled to a minimum tax offset of 30% and a maximum of
Read More…

Further to our previous Client Alerts in relation to important tax issues for Trusts, it appears the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) are continuing to increase their strict compliance approach towards trusts. Trustee Resolutions The ATO has just released a fact sheet in relation to Trustee resolutions (refer to link: http://www.ato.gov.au/General/Trusts/In-detail/Changes/Trustee-resolutions-must-be-made-no-later-than-30-June/. The fact sheet highlights that Trustees
Read More…

The Government recently passed new Trust Legislation which clarifies the taxation treatment of trust income and the manner in which the trust beneficiaries are taxed when made presently entitled to a share of the trust’s net income. The legislation rewrite puts to rest the debate that arose after the ATO released its Practice Statement regarding
Read More…

The government has introduced legislation which applies from 1 July 2010 which requires “closely held trusts” to withhold tax from distributions to beneficiaries where the beneficiary has not provided its tax file number (TFN) to the trust and the trust has not reported the TFN to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) within a specified time
Read More…

You may be aware that the Australian Taxation Office recently challenged the validity of trustees using streaming clauses within discretionary trust Deeds to enable different classes of income to be distributed to different beneficiaries (e.g Franked income, capital gains, interest income etc). Following the 2010 High Court decision in Bamford v F C of T,
Read More…

Further to Client Alert No 2, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has finalised Draft Taxation Ruling TR 2009/D8 and released it in final form as Taxation Ruling TR 2010/3. In addition, the ATO has released Practice Statement PS LA 2010/4 which gives ATO employees guidance as to how TR 2010/3 should be interpreted (but also
Read More…

In the 2009 Federal Budget, it was announced that the maximum concessional contribution able to be made to a complying superannuation fund for the 2009/10 financial year would be halved to $25,000 (and a transitional amount of $50,000 for those taxpayers over the age of 50). This has focused attention on contributions which may inadvertently
Read More…