Accounting & Wealth Insights

From 1 July 2017, all superannuation funds, including SMSFs, will be required to report Transfer Balance Cap (TBC) credits & debits to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on an ‘events’ basis.

The scope and complexity of Australia’s transfer pricing regime has increased considerably following the recent enactment of more stringent and robust domestic transfer pricing rules.

From 31 July, the NSW Office of State Revenue (OSR) and the State Debt Recovery Office (SDRO) are called Revenue NSW. All functions, administrative and legislative powers of both offices continue under the new name.

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bill Shorten, has announced that a Labor Government would introduce a standard minimum 30% tax rate for discretionary trust distributions to beneficiaries over the age of 18.

Step 1: Decide whether to use the constitutional corporation route (ie have a corporate trustee) or old age pensions route (ie have individual trustees). Note that either route allows the fund to pay lump sum and/or superannuation benefits, provided this is also permitted by the fund’s trust deed.

The ATO is warning taxpayers to avoid incorrect claims for work-related expenses. Assistant Commissioner Kath Anderson noted that the ATO is using real-time data comparing taxpayers in similar occupations and tax brackets, which will enable them to identify higher-than-expected deductions claims.

As 30 June 2017 is fast approaching, we would like to advise of some key tax changes that your business may be in a position to take advantage of before the end of the financial year.