The growing interest of property investment within self-managed super funds has certainly extended to individuals looking to undertake some of the property improvements themselves to build retirement savings (e.g. builders). Recent discussion within the NTLG Superannuation Technical Sub-group (March 2013) looked at the issue of a related party undertaking improvements to a property at no … Continue reading »
The growing popularity of property investment within self-managed super funds (SMSF) has certainly attracted a new breed of SMSF trustee, but has also attracted the interest of the Australian Taxation Office and ASIC as they continue to regulate this growing sector. It is important that individuals investing in property for their retirement understand the key … Continue reading »
Is it essential when buying property using a limited recourse borrowing arrangement (LRBA) to require only two payments, being a deposit and settlement payment to comply with the single acquirable asset definition? This was the question recently asked of the NTLG Super Technical sub-group (December 2012) regarding example 10 within SMSFR 2012/1, which refers to … Continue reading »
After only just discussing the regulatory focus by ASIC on SMSFs and property investments, we have seen further regulatory “alarm bells” ringing through the ATO’s release of taxpayer alert, TA 2012/7. A Taxpayer Alert is an “early warning” of significant new and emerging higher risk tax and superannuation planning issues or arrangements that the ATO … Continue reading »
I read with great interest recently in the Australian newspaper, an article titled “Setting up an SMSF to buy property a risky strategy” (13 November 2012) regarding ASIC commissioners Peter Kell and Greg Tanzer focusing a taskforce on aggressive marketing of speculative property developments with SMSF limited recourse borrowing arrangements. Whilst there appears to be a lot … Continue reading »
I’m pleased to announce the launch of my Top10 SMSF strategies for 2012-13 webinar to be held at 11am AEST, Thursday, 23 August 2012. With more than 410 attendees to last year’s session, this is the most anticipated SMSF webinar for 2012!! In addition to the webinar, all attendees will receive a free copy of … Continue reading »
It quite amazing how far we have come with limited recourse borrowing arrangements over the nearly 2 years since changes were introduced on 7 July 2010. Many people would recall at that time of the introduction of sections 67A and 67B into the SIS Act that many within the industry were highly critical of the … Continue reading »
If the industry was pleased about the draft ruling on limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBA), the final ruling, SMSFR 2012/1 has done nothing to wipe the smiles off trustee & industry faces. The ATO has taken a practical approach in this ruling to key concepts including: What is an ‘acquirable asset’ and a ‘single acquirable … Continue reading »
As we move closer to the implementation of industry reforms regarding the provision of financial advice, Treasury last week has added to the pile with the re-issuing of draft Corporations Amendment Regulations to provide that limited recourse borrowing arrangements as allowed under superannuation law are financial products. These reforms were previously announced back in March … Continue reading »
The ability to take control of your retirement savings is a key driver in the continued growth of SMSFs. However, being a trustee comes with responsibility to ensure that your fund meets strict regulatory and compliance obligations. Failure to meet these can result in significant penalties, along with the potential loss of the fund’s complying … Continue reading »