Recent content by brucea

For a $1.4m item I too would be cautious Paul but I'd be happy to satisfy the work test by undertaking actual work for recompense as long as the effort and reward were genuine and documented. For a $1.4m item I'd probably want a ruling from the ATO before relying on an arrangement that does not...

The definition of gainful employment in s 1.03 is pretty broad: gainfully employed means employed or self-employed for gain or reward in any business, trade, profession, vocation, calling, occupation or employment. Doesn't sound too hard to document and report on a tax return some paid...

Irresponsible? Sometimes it's fun to imagine how the OP might do what they want to do. If the ATO has said something about such a practice do you have a link? I'll grant you SISR 5.03(2) would be a tough hurdle to get past. I had actually misread it. I'd taken it to be subject to the 5.03(1)...

One idea might be to make the children members of the fund and then have your deed allow the allocation of income and capital growth on a basis other than by member balance. Such as a per capita allocation of earnings. As far as I know there's nothing in the SIS Act that prevents this. If the...

I'm really glad I didn't sign up for the MyGov nonsense and simply used the old method of authenticating via a prior year's notice of assessment for the returns I've done so far.

The Morris decision (or should I say decisions? There were at least 4 cases I've seen from that unfortunate not-so-blended family) is at least a good example of a BDBN being upheld despite the surviving trustee having acted contrary to it, albeit having done so after arming herself with some...

Actually I see the lack of access to the SCT as a benefit of a SMSF. I can lock down the estate planning outcomes with a SMSF using a carefully constructed trust deed and the SCT won't poke its nose in. When you say about an ex-hubby who flies to Malta to his GF you're not meaning the Shail...

It works fine. I've used it twice already. You must have done something incorrectly. When e-tax prompts for the myGov username simply type taxhelp as the username and click either pre-fill or lodge (depending on which screen is asking for the myGov username). e-tax then takes you to the standard...

Actually you CAN use e-tax without a mygov identity. You can just validate the same way it used to work by entering taxhelp when it asks for your mygov username. See details here: http://whrl.pl/Rd1eyP

If you are thinking about changing your accountant then it sounds like having them appointed as your attorney is something you need to fix quickly. If there's another option, such as your sister-in-law, then they could be the attorney appointed yet still outsource the work to someone else...

Rather than becoming a SAF do you have one trusted person in Australia who could act as director of a corporate trustee under a power of attorney (which Paul mentions above)? Or two trusted people if you prefer not to use a corporate trustee? Cost of the power of attorney option is zero.

Before you decide what to do (and my first inclination is that keeping under a $500K balance if all else were equal would be a good thing to do) compare your relative preservation ages as well. You might find some benefit in growing the balance of the older of the two of you so that the money is...

I was talking about concessional contributions (based on the question mentioning 15% tax rate).

If you mean as a distribution then I believe the answer is no, but if the Trust has employees the Trustee can certainly pay super for them (and, depending on the salary level paid and the award they are paid under, might be obligated to pay super for them).

Perhaps it might be because expensive accountants don't necessarily have great knowledge and excellent customer service. They might be one of the worst accountants in an area with higher demand than is supplied by other accountants. My experience with accountants left me feeling that there is...