2018/19 Federal Budget Personal income tax changes 1.1 Personal income tax plan The Government will introduce a seven-year, three-step, Personal Income Tax Plan, as follows: Step 1: Targeted tax relief to low and middle income earners The Government will introduce the Low and Middle Income Tax Offset, a non-refundable tax offset of up to $530 [...]
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (‘ASIC’) is putting the financial advice sector on the notice about meeting requirements for witnessing signatures, after finding issues with advisers failing to correctly witness binding death nomination forms for superannuation benefits. Binding death nominations forms are an important part of estate planning – in the event of a [...]
The Australia National Audit Office (ANAO) Has released its report into whether the ATO effectively responded to the recent unscheduled information technology (IT) system outages (the most significant of which occurred in December 2016 and February 2017). The ANAO notes that online services have become the primary means of transacting with the ATO, so it [...]
The inspector-General of Taxation’s (IGT’s) report into aspects of the Pay As You Go (PAYG) Instalments system has been publicly released, which is the first IGT review undertaken in direct response to insights drawn from the IGT’s complaint handling service. It also had stakeholder support during consultation on the IGT 2017 work program and attracted [...]
The approved SMSF auditor application fee for registration with ASIC is proposed to increase from $107 to a staggering $3,429 from 1 July 2018. The reason behind this ‘price hike’ is that, while around 90% of Asic’s regulatory activities will be recovered via industry levies, the remaining 10% will be recovered via fees-for-service from 1 [...]
The Federal Court has overturned the decision of the AAT that the market value of shares subject to a CGT event was less than the proceeds received. Consequently, the taxpayer did not satisfy the $6 million Maximum Net Asset Value test (‘MNAV test’) and could not access the CGT small business concessions (‘SBCs’). Facts The [...]
According to the ATO, of all the things that can cause small businesses to fold, “high on that list is poor record keeping”. More than half of the businesses they visited in their Protecting honest businesses they visited in their record keeping. Issues they found include businesses: Estimating their sales and income; Using the [...]
The Government will reform the administration and oversight of organizations with Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status. The Minister for Revenue and Financial Services said, “These sensible reforms will enhance the role of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), strengthen governance arrangements, reduce administrative complexity and ensure continued trust and confidence in the sector.” [...]
The ATO has released its latest statistics on the SMSF sector with the publication of the annual Self-Managed Superannuation Funds: A Statistical Overview 2015-16. According to Assistant Commissioner Kasey Macfarlane, “SMSFs account for 99.6% of all superannuation funds and 30% of the $2.3 Trillion in total superannuation assets in Australia.” “The annual statistics highlight the [...]
