New super laws – the death of transition to retirement income streams?

New super laws – the death of transition to retirement income streams?

There seems to be some confusion about the fate of transition to retirement income streams (TRIS). TRISs will not be abolished from 1 July 2017. Rather, they will no longer qualify for “pension phase” (or retirement phase under the new terminology). 

New super laws – the transfer balance cap

New super laws – the transfer balance cap

The transfer balance cap is the new limit on how much a member can have in their pension account and accordingly is a limit on how much a super fund can have in “pension phase”. Income and capital gains are tax free to the extent they are in pension phase. To the extent that a super fund is in “accumulation phase” its income is taxed at 15% and capital gains, on assets held for more than 12 months, are taxed at 10%. 

New super laws – non-concessional contributions cap

New super laws – non-concessional contributions cap

The headline items to this measure is that the non-concessional contributions cap will be reduced from $180K to $100K, the “bring forward rule” will be reduced from $540K to $300K and that members with account balances over $1.6 million will not be able to make non-concessional contributions. But like most of the new measures there are additional complexities to the new non-concessional cap measures.

New super laws - transfer balance cap – transitional CGT relief – cost base reset

New super laws - transfer balance cap – transitional CGT relief – cost base reset

The transfer balance cap measure includes a transitional CCT relief via a cost base reset. This relief is designed to ensure that only capital growth post the introduction of all of transfer balance cap (ie from 1 July 2017) is taxed. However, like all of the new measures the relief is complicated and requires careful consideration prior to 1 July 2017.

Sladen Snippet – ATO releases further determination on the application of NALI to non-commercial related party LRBA loans

Sladen Snippet – ATO releases further determination on the application of NALI to non-commercial related party LRBA loans

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released Taxation Determination TD 2016/16 which provides further guidance on its view as to the application of the non-arm’s length income (NALI) rules to the non-commercial limited recourse borrowing arrangement (LRBA) loans from related parties to the trustees of self managed superannuation funds (SMSF). 

Complex estate planning in a complex world.

Complex estate planning in a complex world.

On 6 September, 2016 Sladen Legal delivered an event titled Complex estate planning in a complex world.

In it the following issues were examined:

Sladen Snippet – Court confirms judicial advice not always needed for SMSFs

Sladen Snippet – Court confirms judicial advice not always needed for SMSFs

The Supreme Court of New South Wales, in the decision of Bideena Pty Ltd as trustee for the Bideena Pty Ltd Superannuation Fund, has confirmed that the trustee of a SMSF does not always require judicial advice as to whether the trustee will have a right to indemnify itself out of the SMSF assets for legal costs in pursuing litigation.