Banksgroup

Child Maintenance Trusts

banksgroup — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:30:50 +0000

For taxpayers that are going through a family breakdown, the establishment of a Child Maintenance Trust (CMT) and the transfer of income producing assets into the CMT to fund ongoing child maintenance requirements may be a very tax effective planning tool.

By way off background, un-earned income distributed from a trust to a child under the age of 18 years of age is ordinarily subject to penalty rates of tax under Division 6AA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.

Click here to view the article in full.

2013/14 Federal Budget Summary

banksgroup — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:29:34 +0000

On 14 May 2013, the Federal Government outlined its budget for the year ahead. No doubt that this was the toughest budget faced by the Treasurer, Wayne Swan – with a pending election, forecast budget deficits and previous spending commitments, the Government had to walk a tight-rope!

While Government spending has been tight, the budget announced significant extra funding provided to the ATO to allow the ATO to increase the use of its data matching to determine taxpayer compliance.

Click here to view the full article.

Proposed super reforms

banksgroup — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 03:21:39 +0000

Reforms to Australia’s superannuation system have been announced that will be considered by Parliament after the Federal election in September 2013.

If legislated, the proposals will impact many superannuation fund members before and after retiring. Below is an overview of the key proposals and how they could affect you.

Click here to view the full article.

Removal of benefit of CGT discount concession for non-residents

banksgroup — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 03:18:26 +0000

Pursuant to the announcement made in last year’s Federal Budget, the Government has now introduced new legislation to remove the benefit of the 50% CGT discount concession to non-residents and temporary residents from 8 May 2012.

Click here to view the full article.

The Bentham Global Income Fund

banksgroup — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 03:16:44 +0000

The BG Wealth Management model portfolios have continued to deliver strong returns in the 2013 year to date. A fund that we use to give our clients exposure to credit securities is the Bentham Global Income Fund.

Bentham is focused on generating stable investment income by providing a diversified exposure to domestic and global credit markets.

Click here to view the full article.

Superannuation Changes

banksgroup — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 03:13:33 +0000

Impacts High Income Earners

The government has today announced its future plans for the superannuation industry.
The major losers with today’s announcement are high income earners.

Changes already announced that they confirm will be implemented:

Click here to view the full article.

Time to shake off the cobwebs from the old Trust Deeds!

banksgroup — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:06:32 +0000

Once again, as we start to approach year end, it is timely to consider whether any fine-tuning is required to be made to Trust Deeds / Trust Resolutions prior to 30 June 2013.

Trust Deeds

In light of increased ATO focus over the last several years, it is important that older style Trust Deeds be reviewed to determine their suitability and flexibility.

Click here to view the article in full.

Investments by non-residents in Managed Investment Trusts

banksgroup — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:05:17 +0000

Where a Managed Investment Trust (MIT) makes distributions to a non-resident investor, some component of the distributions may be subject to MIT withholding. From 1 July 2012, the MIT withholding rate has been set at a flat 15%.

Specifically, the amount of the distribution that represents a ‘fund payment’ will be subject to MIT.

A fund payment broadly represents the amount of the net income of the trust less dividends less interest less royalties less capital gains from non-TAP assets, less non-Australian sourced income and less any deductions associated with the above.

Click here to view the article in full.

Landholder duty on redemptions

banksgroup — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:15:00 +0000

Under the landholder duty rules contained in the Duties Act of Victoria which became operative from 1 July 2012, certain acquisitions of “significant interests” in Victorian landholder entities will be subject to landholder duty.

In Victoria, the threshold for an entity to be classified as a landholder entity is landholdings of at least $1,000,000. In turn, the threshold for an acquisition to be a significant interest is 90% in a listed company, 50% in a private company and 20% in a unit trust.

Click here to view the full article.

InfoBank- February 2013

banksgroup — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:31:09 +0000

INACTIVE BANK ACCOUNTS CAN BE SEIZED BY THE GOVERNMENT

In case you did not know.

From 31 May 2013, any “unclaimed” money in bank accounts, first-home saver and life insurance policies that have not had any transaction activity for three years will be transferred to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

As the government has said – any account that has not had any activity (deposits or withdrawals) for three years will become an “unclaimed” account!

Click here to view the full InfoBank.

Payroll tax thresholds for group employers / employers that operate in multiple States

banksgroup — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 00:34:13 +0000

Where a taxpayer entity is considered to be part of a payroll tax group (eg because of common ownership, common control, common use of employees etc) or alternatively, is not part of a payroll tax group but has employees located in several jurisdictions across Australia, the monthly payroll tax liability of the taxpayer entity may be higher than what it would ordinarily be.

Click here to view the full article.

Property development transactions and “Mere Realisation”

banksgroup — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 03:56:23 +0000

All of our clients inevitably have some form of property holdings – whether it be a property used as their principal place of residence, a property used to derive rental income, a property used in their business operations etc.

It is not uncommon for our clients however to seek to subsequently undertake some form of property development on those properties prior to their sale.

Click here to view the article in full.