Blog

Can you access your super fund for medical procedures?

- Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Editor: The following relates to a newspaper article that appeared recently in a national newspaper and was then subsequently picked up by national TV and radio. As it concerns a taxpayer withdrawing all of the $30,000 balance from her superannuation fund for weight loss, a tummy tuck an ..

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How to protect your identity - ATO's (anti) fraud video

Scott Robertson - Tuesday, November 11, 2014

The ATO continues to warn taxpayers about the dangers of not protecting important details such as their tax file number, date of birth, current address and driver's license number. So it has put out a video called "Don't let yourself disappear", which shows what can happen when personal inf ..

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ATO says beware of 'boiler room' sales tactics

- Tuesday, November 11, 2014

The ATO has warned that some operators are using telemarketers to apply high-pressure sales tactics to lure superannuation trustee investors into high risk or suspect investments. This practice is known as 'boiler room' type operations. Such tactics are being used to coerce investors to inv ..

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Get a second (investment) opinion

Scott Robertson - Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The ATO is encouraging anyone unsure about a tax investment they have been offered to seek a second opinion from an independent and trusted tax professional, so as not to be fooled by legitimate-looking tax avoidance schemes. Deputy Commissioner Tim Dyce says illegal schemes are usually desi ..

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ATO warns property developers to declare income

- Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Editor: The ATO has issued a media release warning property developers against using trusts to return the proceeds from property developments as capital gains instead of income. Deputy Commissioner Tim Dyce said, “A growing number of property developers are using trusts to suggest a d ..

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SMSFs and succession planning

Scott Robertson - Tuesday, September 16, 2014

In a recent speech, an ATO Deputy Commissioner emphasised how important it was for trustees of SMSFs to have a plan in place for the succession and control of the SMSF on the death or incapacity of members who are trustees (or directors of the corporate trustee). He said that other document ..

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SMSFs and trauma insurance

- Tuesday, September 16, 2014

From 1 July 2014, an SMSF can generally only provide an insured benefit for a member that is consistent with one of the following conditions of release of a member's superannuation benefits: death; terminal medical condition; permanent incapacity (causing the member to permanently c ..

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New ATO initiatives for small businesses

Scott Robertson - Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Editor: In a recent speech, the Commissioner of Taxation, Chris Jordan, announced some new initiatives for small business. The following are excerpts from his speech. Red Tape The Commissioner stated that the ATO was trying to reduce the amount of red tape because it understands "that ..

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ATO "data mining" program targets offshore tax evaders

- Thursday, August 14, 2014

The ATO has announced that it is "mining data" to identify individuals with undisclosed offshore income and assets. The new information would be used to encourage people to disclose under Project DO IT, the ATO’s offshore disclosure initiative. The ATO will significantly increase i ..

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ATO's new Business Viability Assessment Tool

Scott Robertson - Wednesday, July 09, 2014

The ATO has designed and launched a new online tool to help businesses and tax agents determine whether a business is viable. Once the tax agent or taxpayer has answered a series of questions, they will be provided with a report that will contain an overall viability assessment of their bus ..

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