ATO

The Australian Taxation Office has extended its data collection to more rigorously check numbers in FY23 tax returns and cut down on tax cheats. Advisers and their accountants are passing the message onto taxpayers.

With new data showing offshore share investments comprise just 2 percent of total self-managed superannuation fund assets in Australia, advisers are warning SMSFs against overreliance on domestic shares and cash and urging diversification.

Back in 2019, then-FPA CEO Dante De Gori and Tangelo Advice Consulting’s Conrad Travers engaged the ATO to see if it would be open to updating guidance on the tax deductibility of upfront advice fees. By the middle of this year, we should see the outcome.

The success and popularity of SMSFs has also given several hundred thousand people direct access to their retirement savings. More concerning, the ATO believes, is that fraudsters are starting to take notice.

Superannuation tax breaks will cost the government nearly $53 billion this year, nearly matching the cost of the entire age pension program, according to a new analysis that says major reform is needed. Meanwhile, the government has signalled a tightening of super legislation.

The likely ‘double-bump’ transfer balance cap increase to $1.9 million will exacerbate what is already an “overly complex” indexation rule that advisers have to navigate and explain to clients, the SMSF Association’s Fabian Bussoletti says.

Advisers are rallying around the prospect of upfront advice fees becoming tax deductible after the ATO announced a review of Tax Determination 95/60.

This week saw the release of the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO’s) latest quarterly data on the self-managed super fund (SMSF) sector. The information provides a unique insight into what has been a sector under pressure for many years now, as both regulators and industry fund alternatives fine-tuned their focus.  The takeaway from the latest publicly…

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has flagged an increase in both the Transfer Balance (TBC) and Total Superannuation Balance (TSB) caps, which impact everything from the eligibility to make contributions, tax exemption of earnings and even the co-contribution. Following the release of the consumer price index (CPI) figures earlier this week, the TBC and TSB…

Clients who have put off establishing a self-managed super fund due to the assumed high costs may be put at ease after the Australian Taxation Office released the median cost of an SMSF which is significantly lower than earlier reported figures. The ATO’s 2017-18 Statistical Overview of SMSFs shows the median operating expense of SMSFs…