For many Australians, superannuation is the largest asset they leave behind – often larger than anything other than the family home. What many find surprising is that superannuation does not automatically form part of a person’s estate. People t...

Self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) let you control how your super is invested but they don’t let you access those funds any earlier than you could in a large fund.  Even though it’s your super and (for SMSFs) sits in a bank account you control...

As all employers (should) know, failing to contribute the minimum 9.5% of an employee’s “ordinary time earnings” (“OTE”) to super by the 28th day of the second month after the end of each quarter results in the Superannuation Guarantee Charge (�...

From 1 July 2017, pensions need to be supported by no more than $1.6 million of assets and tax changes would encourage almost all transition to retirement pensions to cease. The measure will require accurate commutation documents prepared prior to the ...

The new rules will require pension accounts to be no more than $1.6 million per person on the commencement of the pension or 1 July 2017 for existing pensions. The Government chose to give no concession whatsoever for the situation of a person who rece...

Here is Part 4 of our series on key superannuation changes to come into effect on 1 July 2017. The legislation introduces an extraordinarily complex set of rules designed in summary to limit the amount in the fund that can be held in the tax-free pensi...

Continuing our series on Key Superannuation Changes for July 2017, we look at how the rules will affect borrowing in super. Notwithstanding that many funds will have quite significant loans to repay, the legislation did not include a concession for co...

In our previous post, we highlighted key superannuation changes due to come into effect on 1 July 2017. This post continues the series by looking at changes to the contribution rules. Much like the period leading up to 2007, there is now a once-off con...

The main bills have passed, although enshrining of the purpose of superannuation in law has been left for another day. This is the first major overhaul of the superannuation landscape since the changes introduced in 2007, which were, in the intervening...

In late 2015, the ATO announced that it expected to see all related party loans to SMSF’s to be on arm’s length terms. Expected compliance is by 30 June 2016. This is a very significant reversal of previous ATO views, and the steps to take are f...