ATO takes aim at ‘you-scratch-my-back’ auditing arrangements It has long been an accepted standard that the auditor of an SMSF needs to be independent of that fund, and be a third party entity to the SMSF. This requirement is written…
You are allowed to take issue with the ATO if it disagrees with your self-assessment of your tax position. If you believe the ATO’s assessment is incorrect, the first step is straight forward and fairly informal. You contact us and…
In the year since event-based reporting (EBR) started for SMSFs (from 1 July 2018) the ATO says an unprecedented number of transfer balance cap reports have required re-reporting. The transfer balance account report (TBAR) is used to report certain events…
The income year of 2019-20 has just ticked over, which is also the first year in which an individual is able to make additional catch-up contributions to super through the application of unused concessional (before tax) contributions. These are “unused”…
In the first quarter of this calendar year, legislation was passed that will supplement the ATO’s current “same business test” for losses with a more flexible “similar business test”. The new test will expand access to past year losses when…
A new ruling has been released by the ATO on the deductibility or otherwise of “penalty interest”. The term penalty interest refers to an amount payable by a borrower under a loan agreement when the lender agrees to an early…
This tax time, the ATO, as usual, has nominated some tax claim hot spots that it will be paying attention to — and which you should approach with caution when claiming these deductions. For example, the ATO has already flagged…
When you have plans for starting a new business, one of the central decisions is which business trading structure will work best for your venture. The general problem however can be that there are both pros and cons with the…
Click here for a pdf version of this article.c Penalty interest can be deductible, under specific conditions A new ruling has been released by the ATO on the deductibility or otherwise of “penalty interest”. The term penalty interest refers to…
New labels in the 2019 SMSF annual return The SMSF annual return for 2019 has a number of new questions and labels that SMSF practitioners and trustees need to be aware of. In previous years, the ATO advised trustees that…