News

Laws may trigger advice need for new group

January 25, 2017

Stormy clouds over the ocean, from the beach.

The prescribed treatment of superannuation death benefits under the recently passed superannuation legislation could activate demand for financial advice from elderly widows or widowers, according to an accounting firm partner.

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Compliance

Advice crucial for SMSFs unable to repay LRBA

January 25, 2017

Krystine Lumanta

SMSF trustees in non-bank limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBA) who are unable to repay their loan by the approaching 31 January deadline need to seek legal advice and should have already contacted the ATO to discuss their options.

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Accounting

Striking the right balance

January 25, 2017

Bryan Ashenden

Accountants and financial advisers have a critically important role to ensure that only those investors for whom an SMSF is suitable go into the SMSF sector and in doing so are fully informed.

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Documentation

Pressure on for timely record-keeping

January 23, 2017

Darin Tyson-Chan

A specialist superannuation lawyer has warned financial advisers and accountants to ensure their SMSF clients have up-to-date fund information to determine whether their pension balances are over the $1.6 million transfer balance cap at 30 June this year.

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Accounting

Super rule will expose accountants

Mouse traps with cheese on old wooden table.

January 23, 2017

Krystine Lumanta

The incoming $1.6 million transfer balance cap is expected to catch unlicensed accountants offering financial advice as well as accountants neglecting to help clients in order not to breach the licensing regime, an SMSF expert has said.

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Superannuation

Adequacy crucial to super objective: SMSFA

January 23, 2017

Krystine Lumanta

The SMSF Association has called for adequacy to be included in the superannuation objective, labelling the concept fundamental to achieving a secure and dignified retirement.

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LICs

SMSF demand for AFIC LIC continues

January 23, 2017

Krystine Lumanta

Australian Foundation Investment Company (AFIC) has said the long-term nature of its portfolio continues to attract SMSFs to its listed investment company (LIC) structure.

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Auditing

Five ways direct bank feeds impact on SMSFs

January 23, 2017

Shelley Banton

The introduction of direct bank feeds into SMSF platforms has been both a blessing and a curse for SMSF auditors and advisers. Direct bank feeds can provide time-saving benefits because they eliminate trawling through pages of disorganised statements. However, depending on the status of the feed, a raft of new issues emerge that can throw […]

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ATO

ATO conciliatory over online outages

HELP button on the enter key of a computer keyboard

January 18, 2017

Darin Tyson-Chan

The ATO has announced it will not enforce any penalties SMSFs may have incurred due to the outage experienced by the regulator’s online services at the end of last year.

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Compliance

Contributions procedures to be streamlined

January 18, 2017

Darin Tyson-Chan

The method SMSF trustees and members must follow to be able to claim a tax deduction for contributions is to be monitored and likely fine-tuned in the foreseeable future.

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