Life interest trusts are a popular strategy for blended families in estate planning, but it is important to remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all.

As the economic effects of COVID-19 continue to be felt across the country, the regulatory landscape for SMSFs has also changed.

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.

The Victorian Court of Appeal’s decision in MD Commercial Pty Ltd v Commissioner of State Revenue [2019] VSCA 295 was a culmination of the battle between the Victorian Commissioner of State Revenue and the taxpayers’ statutory interpretation of a duty exemption contained in s 35 of the Duties Act 2000 (Vic) (Act) and whether the trustee had to be in a “bare trustee” relationship with no active powers being held by the trustee.

When varying a trust deed, careful regard must be directed to the provisions of the deed as a whole, and the potential tax issues which can arise.

Beneficiaries of a unit trust may only claim franking credits if they are a “qualified person” in relation to the franked dividend. In order to be a qualified person the taxpayer must satisfy both the related payments rule and the holding period rule.

A look at Blockchain technology and how it is changing the legal landscape of everyday business.

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.

The rules for testing whether a trust can utilise a prior year tax loss are complex.

This article provides tips and traps around accessing land transfer duty exemptions for the transfer of Victorian real estate from a trust to a beneficiary.

Funding buy-sell agreements via insurance policies is a favoured option. Advisers should consider the merits of holding these policies via trust structures.

Careful consideration of the identity of the appointor of a trust, and the scope of their powers, is essential in succession planning.

Regulation 13.22C unit trusts are an important structuring option for self-managed superannuation fund investments. However, is the administrative burden worth it?

While consistent with recent ATO views, TD 2019/D6 and TD 2019/D7 provide minimal clarification on the taxation of Australian discretionary trusts distributing capital gains to foreign beneficiaries.

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

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

This article looks at what determines the tax residence of a trust and what the consequences can be from a change of tax residence.

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

In this paper I have firstly examined whether an SMSF can carry on a business.

This article provides an overview of the Commissioner’s long-awaited preliminary views on trust splitting provided in TD 2018/D3.