From about five years ago, the baby boomer generation started to turn 65. A surge in Australian business owners retiring began, and continues, but the topic of succession planning, although given some emphasis by this demographic wave, remains a perennially under-addressed issue. Often a recurring subject of the ATO’s “Building Confidence” compliance website, effective succession...

An area where we see individuals getting it wrong as employees is in relation to claiming work-related travel expenses. The absence of hard and fast rules can makes claiming travel expenses difficult as often the deductibility of such costs can be dependent on the nature of employment, the amount of time spent away from home...

In the old days, tax officials could be seen driving around the ‘burbs looking for signs of opulence that didn’t match your income. Now, with everything that needs to be known available digitally, data matching can uncover income that doesn’t seem to match lifestyle in a fast and effective manner. The ATO it is now...

The final tranche of 2015 small business budget announcements have made it into law, now expanding the tax relief available for small businesses to change the legal structure of their business. This new arrangement is designed to provide greater flexibility for small businesses to change legal structures without incurring an immediate CGT liability, and allowing...

A death benefit nomination is a written direction to SMSF trustees which instructs the trustee to pay a member’s entitlements to certain dependants and/or legal personal representatives (their estate) in the proportions the member wishes in the event of their death. With so much money tied up in superannuation, and more and more of Australia’s...

Is there a problem with using your company’s assets for yourself? Assets that belong to your business but that are being used for your own benefit or enjoyment can potentially trigger a tax issue known as “Division 7A”. You have set up running your business in a company to get all the “asset protection” advantages...

Whether you’ve been in business for years or you’re just starting out, choosing the right structure for your business is important. It is a consideration that is not only important from the start, but as your business grows and develops. The business structure that you build your business on can determine: how much tax you...

It is not uncommon for professional people who provide services to set up a separate entity to run their business, be it a trust, partnership or incorporated company. The allure of course is the lower tax rate that these entities can secure, rather than at the top marginal rate of 47% (or 49% with the...

The money put aside in your self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) is of course intended to be kept to fund the retirement of you and your fellow fund members. This is the over-riding obligation of you as trustee to adhere to the “sole purpose” test. Accessing the money in an SMSF to pay benefits is generally...

The ATO is focusing on claims that investment property owners make for repairs to rental residences that it deems to in fact be “improvements”. The scenario where investment properties have work done on them often happens shortly after the property is purchased, and has led to the term “initial repair” being commonly used when discussing...