Opinion remains divided on whether the trusted status accountants enjoy among their clients and the greater public will be eroded if some practitioners are found to be providing poor SMSF advice under the licensing regime, according to a financial services research company senior executive.

The ATO recently decided to scrap the Draft Taxation Ruling (TR) 2013/D7. This draft ruling relates to superannuation entities and how expenses are to be apportioned. The original ruling, TR 93/17, will apply with an issue of a comprehensive addendum to this ruling. It is expected to be issued this month.

The team at selfmanagedsuper would like to wish all of its readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as it signs off for 2015.

The use of reserving strategies within SMSFs was not very common, despite the opportunities now available following the aftermath of the global financial crisis (GFC), according to a sector expert.

Taxpayers interested in making their transition-to-retirement income stream (TRIS) payments tax free by treating them as a lump sum have been warned by an expert SMSF lawyer to obtain a private binding ruling (PBR) before pursuing the strategy.

Specialist peer-to-peer lender InvoiceX is targeting SMSF members to become its next solid segment of investors.

Software specialist Class was officially listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Friday, trading under the ASX code CL1.

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) is still searching for a new head of superannuation but has revealed it will officially commence the recruitment process for the role.

The latest ATO industry data has shown the average SMSF asset balance has reached a record high and the sector has generated another year of positive returns.