New ATO Exposure Draft on SMSF Borrowing

[CosmicTrevor]

ATO Page

On the face of it this appears to be welcome news for those that have properties on bare trust.

I must admit I was surprised to see this as if limited recourse borrowing is going to be banned why even bother going to the effort of releasing new rules - unless the intent is to just retrospectively make what has already been practiced in the past acceptable (ie ignoring the bare trust for income tax purposes).

Comment from DBA Lawyers

 

[Paul@PFI]

The intent is to fix the problems of the past and grandfather these trusts if a ban occurs. Like a pre-99 unit trust.

The ATO have loads of rulings that are outdated but not withdrawn. And many areas where rulings have been requested and not been issued.