Changes have been made to the Pension Loan Scheme (PLS) under the federal government that came into effect 1 July 2019. The updates aimed to improve the previous scheme and help more retirees boost their retirement income and pay for extra expenses such as home care. The key features of the new Pension Loan Scheme…
The interest you earn from term deposits is subject to tax, just like your regular income. You have to declare investment income on your tax return, including interest in the year it was credited or received. The amount of tax you need to pay depends on the amount of interest you earn on your term…
If you have a self-managed super fund (SMSF), then you need to meet the sole purpose test to be eligible for the tax concessions that are normally available to super funds. The sole purpose test aims to ensure that SMSFs are maintained for the purpose of providing benefits to members upon retirement or for beneficiaries…
The national rental affordability scheme (NRAS) started on 1 July 2008, encouraging large-scale investment in affordable housing. It offers tax and cash incentives to providers of new dwellings for 10 years, granted they are rented to low and moderate income households at 20% below market rates. Though the NRAS is no longer taking new investments,…
If you are a sole trader, or in a partnership, then you are not obligated to make super guarantee (SG) payments for yourself. However, you should still consider making personal contributions to super to help you save for retirement. Your methods of contributing to super can depend on how you pay yourself. For example, if…
Plans are underway to carry out a system change during the December closure of the ATO, to introduce Activity statement financial processing (ASFP). This change will move the majority of taxpayer financial information into one accounting system that will have multiple accounts. ASFP will shift activity statement and franking deficit tax accounts from the current…
Inactive low-balance accounts (ILBAs) are a new category account that needs to be reported and paid to the ATO. This was introduced in the Treasury Law Amendment (Protect Your Superannuation Package) Bill 2019 that came into effect on 1 July 2019 after first being announced in the 2018-19 Federal Budget. ILBAs are designed to protect…
Small businesses entitled to refunds of GST may not be aware of the four-year time limit on claiming those refunds. Your entitlement to a GST credit ends four years from the due date of the earliest activity statement in which you could have claimed it. GST refunds are claimed under the indirect tax concession scheme…
Commutation authorities are issued by the ATO when a member of a SMSF has exceeded their transfer balance cap. A commutation authority will be issued after the member has received an excess transfer balance determination alerting them they have passed the cap. The transfer balance cap is currently $1.6 million and is applied to the…
On the 28 October 2019, The Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Tax Integrity and Other Measures No.1) Bill 2019 received royal assent. The new tax law creates limitations for deductions related to the expenses of holding vacant land from 1 July 2019. This is likely to affect those who acquire land for investment purposes and begin…