Members and trustees of self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) will sometimes become estranged because of disputes involving their family or business relationships.

In the current economic landscape, business owners may be considering a restructure, merger, or demerger to adapt, survive, or enable growth. A change in the structure of a business typically involves either the transfer of ownership interests in the entire business or of specific assets of the business. The disposal of an ownership interest in a business or its assets may trigger tax consequences for the business or business owners on capital or revenue account.

The small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions (Concessions) in Division 152 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 97) offer significant opportunities to reduce or eliminate tax levied on capital gains.1 However, despite a recent judicial pronouncement that the Concessions should be interpreted beneficially,2 the legislative conditions for relief are intricate and complex.

Challenges to death benefits and binding death benefit nominations (BDBNs) have been regularly popping up in court decisions for last couple of decades.

This paper has been built on a previous paper on the superannuation guarantee (SG) regime, titled Super Guarantee – no longer the toothless tiger. That paper was designed to take a holistic examination of the SG regime. In this paper, we have built on that approach and added a number of developments, including:

The small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions (Concessions) in Division 152 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 97) offer significant opportunities to reduce or eliminate tax levied on capital gains.

This paper has been built on a previous paper on the superannuation guarantee (SG) regime, titled Super Guarantee – no longer the toothless tiger. That paper was designed to take a holistic examination of the SG regime. In this paper, we have built on that approach and added a number of developments, including:

The structure of a self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) is often based on a family unit. A very common SMSF structure is, for example, two spouses as the members and trustees/directors of the corporate trustee.

Do the aggregation of interests in a landholding unit trust include exempt transfers?

Greensill confirms foreign beneficiaries of a resident discretionary trust are taxable on gains made on non-taxable Australian property. Was the outcome an unintended consequence of the 2011 changes?

Main Themes for Workshop 2

• Tips and traps once residency is established

This workshop will use case studies to explore some of the unique SMSF issues that may arise through investing via unit trusts including:

The increased global mobility of individuals and online transactions, together with the deregulation of financial markets and exchange controls since the 1980s, mean that cross-border estate tax issues are, in many instances, “the new black”.

Taxation issues will regularly arise in the family law context, especially in those cases that involve the division of property.

This article looks at the scope of the definition of the term “beneficiary” in a discretionary trust deed, and, in particular, examines the ambiguities that sometimes arise in relation to the terms “spouse” and “child” within that definition

SMSFs (self managed superannuation funds) have been carrying on property development activities ever since SMSFs came into existence. Yet despite that there is still a common concern that such activities will cause the SMSF to become non-compliant, or subject to penalties, on the basis that such activities, and in particular undertaking a property development business, are prohibited.

It has become common practice to make family trust and interposed entity elections to deal with carry forward losses and franked distributions without considering the impact on the future of the group.

When most people think of self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) they mostly think of a vehicle to provide retirement benefits and their concessional tax treatment. In contrast, the asset protection benefit provided by SMSFs is often not considered.

Challenging death benefit payments from superannuation funds has followed four broad categories over the years. Interestingly, they have developed in relatively discrete time periods.