Each year, the ATO promotes a list of compliance areas that the regulator intends to target when reviewing SMSFs during the financial year. This is the hit list for the 2016/2017 year, although you can expect many of the areas to be focused on in the early parts of the 2017/2018 year as well.In August 2016, Kasey ... Read more
SMSF trustees face bigger penalties from 2017/2018 year
SMSF trustees can expect harsher fines from the next financial year (2017/2018 year) onwards with administrative penalties of up to $12,600 per trustee (including corporate trustee) for a breach of the super rules. A value of a penalty until will increase to $210 (from the current $180) from 1 July 2017.At the time ... Read more
Anti-detriment payments banned from July 2017
Note: This change is now law receiving royal assent on 29 November 2016, and taking effect from 1 July 2017.On 3 May 2016 (2016 Federal Budget), the Coalition government announced that it would abolish the anti-detriment provisions from July 2017, and this change became law on 29 November 2016.From 1 July ... Read more
Transition-to-retirement pension (case studies): How does a TRIP work?
Important! From 1 July 2017, the tax exemption on fund earnings financing a transition-to-retirement pension (TRIP) will be removed, due to the laws no longer considering a TRIP to be a superannuation income stream. This change is now law, and will apply to TRIPs in place before July 2017 as well as TRIPs commenced on ... Read more
Less tax, more super? A transition-to-retirement pension is no longer the answer
Important! From 1 July 2017, the fund earnings on assets financing a transition-to-retirement pension (TRIP) will no longer be exempt from earnings tax. From 1 July 2017, a TRIP is no longer considered to be in pension phase. Superannuation changes creating this law passed both houses of parliament on 23 November 2016 ... Read more
SMSF pension payments: A little bit under may be OK
SuperGuide often receives questions from readers asking what happens if they don’t withdraw the minimum pension amount required to be paid each year from their super pension account, especially when the underpayment is due to an honest mistake, or due to circumstances beyond their control.Before January 2013, the ... Read more
Retirement and tax: What are the minimum pension payment rules?
Q: I am 63. I want to retire next year but I am not sure if I want to access my super benefits yet. I have heard that when I retire, I must withdraw some super benefits each year, otherwise I won’t receive tax-free super benefits. Can you please clarify the rules for me?A: Your question is really four questions in ... Read more
Minimum pension payment: At what date do you determine the age for payment calculation?
Q: I am drawing on an account-based pension from my SMSF. I turn 65 in June 2017. Will I need to draw a minimum of 4% or 5% for the 2016/2017 year, and does the minimum pension factors change for the 2017/2018 year? Or, in other words, what is the determining age, the one at the start of the taxation year, or the age I ... Read more
SMSF pension: How do I calculate my minimum pension payment?
Q: I run our SMSF. I wish to retire at 58. I am a little confused about the 4% minimum rule for pensions. Do I have to withdraw 4% of my total accumulation SMSF fund, or do I move some of the assets into a pension fund and then draw 4% a year?A: You ask a very popular question. The minimum pension payment is based ... Read more
SMSF investment: Three most popular asset classes, and the rest
Note: We regularly update this article with the latest data on self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) released by the Australian Taxation Office. This article contains the latest data available up to February 2017 (for data on SMSF growth as at December 2016, and for asset allocation data as at September ... Read more
SMSFs: ATO supervisory levy must be paid in advance
The ATO supervisory levy payable by SMSFs each year has been increasing in leaps and bounds over the past few years. The levy payable each year now sits at $259 and this amount is payable in advance. For a new SMSF what this means is that you would pay double the SMSF levy in your first year.Effective since the ... Read more
Broken promise? Government fails to cut SMSF ATO levy
Just over three years ago, in December 2013, the newly-elected Liberal government (and again re-elected in 2016) promised to review the amount of the ATO SMSF levy. At $259 a year, the SMSF ATO supervisory levy had more than quintupled in the 7 years from the 2007/2008 year when only $45 a year was payable.In late ... Read more
