The First Home Super Saver (FHSS) scheme was introduced a couple of years ago with an aim to reduce pressure on housing affordability. The scheme allows eligible taxpayers to save money for their first home inside the superannuation system. The government says this concessionally taxed environment will help first home buyers save faster. How it...

Distributions from trusts and the taxation of those distributions is complex. This is an attempt to simplify the topic. The purpose of a trust is to separate the legal and beneficial ownership of assets. The legal ownership of the asset rests with the trustee. The beneficiaries benefit from the income that flows from the assets....

For most family businesses as well as private groups, succession planning (sometimes known as transition planning) involves considerations around the eventual sale of your business, or the passing of control of it to other family members when you retire. Depending on your circumstances, this may include realising assets and making other changes to ownership, but...

From bushfire relief groups, sporting clubs, environmental groups, charity associations and many more, volunteers are an indispensible workforce and support network for many organisations. For most, if not all, having volunteers ready to lend a hand is pivotal in them being able to function or survive. Given that there are many hundreds of volunteers propping...

In the Federal Budget last April, the Government announced it would make changes to the tax treatment of testamentary trusts, and an exposure draft of amendments was released by Treasury at the start of the current quarter. The assessable income of a minor from a distribution from a testamentary trust is taxed at ordinary rates,...

Draft rules supporting the new currency restriction legislation have been released by Treasury. The legislation bans the use of cash for some transactions of more than $10,000, and has been passed by the House of Representatives. The Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Rules 2019 specifies, among other things, the transactions that will generally...

There is a simple step that many businesses can take to better manage the risk that can attach to certain assets Not so many years ago, a new scheme was introduced, which also established a national register, that could affect anyone who answers “yes” to any of the following scenarios — are you in business,...

Wondering if you’re eligible to claim the CGT concessions can be settled by answering a few basic questions. In addition to the capital gains tax (CGT) exemptions and rollovers available more widely, there are four additional concessions that allow a small business to disregard or defer some or all of a capital gain from an...

The personal services income (PSI) rules apply to income that is earned mainly from the personal efforts or skills of a person. It does not matter whether the income is earned by the individual in their own name or through an entity such as a business. The rules do not apply to income earned from...

Along with a more automated exchange and processing of invoices, e-invoicing also promises reduced payment times and better cash flow The headline above may give the impression that electronic invoices are a futuristic concept, but of course even today there is a version of e-invoices — think PDFs and other electronic documents that can contain...