Planning for your retirement is very different from normal everyday financial planning. Common everyday financial planning involves planning to achieve our personal goals, such as, planning for an overseas holiday, a house or home unit, an investment property, upgrading to a bigger residence etc. Our personal goals are generally centred around our wants as opposed […]
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Based on report prepared by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) 45% of Australians have two or more superannuation accounts. That amounts to approximately 6.3 million Australians. More disturbing is the statistics that there were 665,300 accounts that the superannuation fund has lost contact with the member. The ATO Assistant Commissioner of Superannuation, John Shepherd stated […]
The Federal Government has released a tax discussion paper which states that the existing tax concessions for high income taxpayers may be reformed. The concern centres around the flat rate of tax for superannuation funds, that is, the same tax rates apply regardless of the wealth or the income of the member. All members in […]
Approximately 84% of Australians are retiring on $21,000 or less per year. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) states that for a comfortable retirement an Individual requires $42,604 per annum and a couple $58,364 per annum. The ASFA defines “comfortable” retirement as; “Comfortable retirement lifestyle – Enabling an older, healthy retiree to be […]
Where a beneficiary is eligible to receive superannuation death benefits, but does not meet the definition of a Death Benefit Dependant under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Cth, death benefits can only be received as a lump sum. In the situation where a beneficiary does meet the definition of a Death Benefit Dependant, the […]
In the 1950’s the average person’s life expectancy was to age 68. It is projected that persons born in 2010 will live on average to age 79. Clearly if people born in the 1950’s retired at age 60 they only need to accumulate sufficient funds to maintain their retirement for 8 years. People born in […]
Establishing a SMSF to purchase an investment property has become a very popular strategy. However, some of the finer details associated with the acquisition requires more time and analysis. In our opinion the properties most suited to a SMSF are properties with low ongoing and maintenance cost and a high gross rental return. Therefore, we […]
Eligible Beneficiaries For a binding death benefit nomination to be valid, an eligible beneficiary must be nominated. To be eligible, a beneficiary must be either your Estate or meet the definition of a Dependant as defined under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 Cth. Section 10 of the Act defines a Dependant as including ‘… […]
Many taxpayers and investors consider self managed superannuation funds as an investment vehicle of choice but few consider the merits of a discretionary trust or a family trust. What is a Discretionary Trust? A trust is essentially a structure where the “trustee” holds assets on behalf of other person (s) being the “beneficiaries” An example […]
By way of background individuals seeking to provide for their retirement by utilizing a Self Managed Superannuation Fund need to follow the strict rules and regulations of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act). It would appear from the latest Australian Taxation Office (ATO’s) annual report that the number of disqualification of trustees has […]