Creating Entitlements in Discretionary Trusts
Sladen Snippet – Foreign person duty surcharge to increase to 7% from 1 July 2016 and related changes
The Victorian Government has passed legislation to increase the duty surcharge on purchasers of residential property by foreign persons to 7% for contracts entered into from 1 July 2016. The changes contain a number of other changes to the foreign purchaser duty regime.
Foreign trusts and foreigner duty surcharge
In March 2016, Foreign trusts and foreigner duty surcharge written by Sladen Legal's Phil Broderick was published in the Tax Institute’s Journal, Taxation in Australia.
Sladen Snippet - Strategies for Estate Planning and Asset Protection Following New High Court Decision
n Fischer & Ors v Nemeske Pty Ltd & Ors ([2016] HCA 11; [2014] NSWSC 203), the High Court yesterday upheld the decisions of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Court of Appeal.
The High Court’s decision confirmed that the resolution of a trustee of a discretionary trust to distribute an amount equal to the value of shares owned by the trustee to a beneficiary (Nemes) created a debt payable upon demand enforceable against the trustee by Nemes’ executor upon Nemes’ death.
CGT Hotspots in Restructuring Trusts in Estate Planning
On 22 October 2015, Rob Jeremiah delivered a presentation at the ‘Taxation Aspects of Estate Planning and Business Succession – The First Annual Symposium’ held in Melbourne by Television Education Network.
At this event, Rob presented a paper called ‘CGT Hotspots in Restructuring Trusts in Estate Planning,’ written by Sam Campbell, Will Monotti, Ashleigh Eynaud and himself.
Tougher penalties have been introduced for the abuse of Enduring Power of Attorney
Lessons from Gina Rinehart's Family Dispute
The very public dispute between mining magnate Gina Rinehart and her children over access to family wealth held in a Family Trust came to a head this year, when the NSW Supreme Court appointed one of Gina’s 4 children (Bianca) as the new trustee of the Family Trust in place of Gina.
The Family Trust, in effect, owned a 24% shareholding in Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd (HPPL) and HHPL owned all the shares in the company which has an interest in an iron ore mine at Hope Downs. Bianca and her brother, John, had issued court proceedings against their mother to remove her as trustee so they could access their share of the Trust’s assets.
Victorian Powers of Attorneys to change from 1 September 2015
Sladen Snippet – The Segelov decision: trustee not under a duty to notify discretionary objects of their entitlements
The New South Wales Court of Appeal adopted a traditional and technical approach to the interpretation of the terms of a trust deed when dismissing an appeal in the decision in Segelov v Ernst & Young Services Pty Ltd.
Sladen Legal presents at the Tax Institute's Trusts & Estates Forum
The attached presentation was delivered by Sladen Legal’s Rob Jeremiah and Phil Broderick at the Tax Institute’s Trusts & Estates Club on 17 June, 2015.
In this presentation, Rob discussed “Beneficial interests” in and “beneficial ownership” of trust property – trustees, trusts and beneficiaries, while Phil addressed issues about Superannuation and insurance – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Sladen Snippet – Unit trusts and capital gains tax concessions
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has issued ATO Interpretative Decision (ATO ID) 2015/8 providing further guidance to trustees of unit trusts seeking to satisfy the basic conditions for access to the capital gains tax (CGT) small business concessions.
The ATO ID states where the trustee of a unit trust has the power to accumulate income, that does not of itself cause the unit trust to fail the fixed trust tests relevant for the purposes of calculating an entity’s small business participation percentage in the trust (item 2 of the table in subsection 152-70(1) of the ITAA 1997).
Sladen Snippet – near enough is not good enough - binding death benefit nomination (BDBN) found to be invalid
The Queensland Supreme Court decision of Munro v Munro has found that a binding nomination signed by a member of an SMSF was invalid because it did not strictly comply with all of the provisions of the fund deed and that near enough is not good enough.
Payment of a non-assessable amount to an owner of discretionary units and CGT event E4
Capital Gains Tax (CGT) event E4 will arise when a beneficiary receives a payment from a trustee of a trust in respect of the beneficiary’s unit or interest in that trust and either some, or all, of that payment is not included in the taxpayer’s assessable income.
An Australian Taxation Office (ATO) private binding ruling, and minutes from the National Tax Liaison Group, suggest that CGT event E4 will not arise when the payment of a non-assessable amount is made to an owner of discretionary units.
Super contributions result in breach of director’s duties
To what extent do directors of a corporate trustee owe duties to a corporate trustee, its shareholders and/or the beneficiaries of the trust?
This article examines a Federal Court case in which a director of a private company, acting as trustee of a private trust, was found to have breached his fiduciary duties to the company by entering into a series of transactions to effect superannuation contributions.