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Perth | Northam | Merredin | Narrogin | Wagin | York | Beverley
Business Advisory & Taxation - Agribusiness - SMSF - Auditing
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Byfields are Moving to Electronic Correspondence
The way Australians communicate is changing. With the shift to digital communication, we're not sending as many letters as we used to. As a result, Australia Post have changed their delivery service so it is taking longer for some mail to be delivered.
We have taken the step towards sending documents such as your income tax returns, financial statements, invoices, etc electronically so that you receive these documents in a more timely and efficient manner. You then have the ability to save a soft copy of these documents on your own computer systems and have them readily available to print or to forward to third parties such as banks and finance companies without having to contact us for a copy. You can even chose to sign documents electronically and email them back to our office!
Over the coming months, we will transition more of the correspondence we send you to an electronic format so please ensure that you add Byfields a trusted sender and avoid our emails being sent to your Junk or Spam folders.
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Accountants Providing Advice on Superannuation
Up until 30 June 2016, accountants were permitted to recommend a client to establish or wind up an interest in a self managed super fund (SMSF) without being licensed under the Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensing regime.
This exemption was repealed on 1 July 2016.
As of 1 July 2016, accountants will need a limited AFS Licence or operate under another licence if they wish to provide SMSF advice, for example, to establish a SMSF or advice on transition to retirement strategies as SMSFs and superannuation are deemed to be a financial product under the legislation. ASIC fines will apply to practitioners who give advice in these areas without a licence.
To continue to give you quality advice in this important area without restriction, the directors of Byfields have undertaken the necessary study to obtain a limited AFS Licence and have been appointed as sub-authorised representatives of Byfields Wealth Management. Under this licence we can continue to provide financial product advice and deal in financial products for the following classes of financial products:
- Deposit Products
- Retirement Savings Accounts & Superannuation
- Self Managed Super Funds
Whilst the scope of the appointment and what financial products can be provided on and dealt with is limited, it does allow the directors to discuss SMSFs with clients in relation to setting up a SMSF, winding up a SMSF, making contributions (either in cash or in-specie i.e. shares, land, property, etc), and other matters pertaining to SMSF.
Roger Thomson is the director who heads up our SMSF team and is responsible for the strategic planning and management of our 500 super funds. In addition to his limited AFS licence, Roger is a SMSF Specialist Advisor having achieved this through the SMSF Association in 2012. His knowledge and skills have been used by many clients to ensure they receive the maximum benefits of running a SMSF so please contact him to discuss your SMSF.
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Does your Trust Deed Need Updating?
The March 2010 High Court decision in Bamford v Federal Commissioner of Taxation (Bamford) has confirmed that the terms of a trust deed are critically important for tax purposes. So why is this important to your trust?
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) have used this case as a test in determining their approach to taxing the income of trusts. The ATO have now confirmed that trust deeds which do not accurately define income may lose their ability to allocate income and trigger some highly adverse tax consequences.
There have also been many changes to trust and tax law over the last few years.
It is important that your trust deed is reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the terms the definition of income included in its terms is up to date as well as addressing issues including (but not limited to) the following:
- Ensuring that a definition of "income" is included so as to reflect the decision in the Bamford case.
- Provide for income streaming provisions to facilitate distribution of different classes of income.
- Including a provision to enable income that is not effectively distributed or allocated prior to the expiry of the accounting period (ie 30 June in any year) to be included as an accretion to the trust fund.
- Expanding or including a definition of "spouse" to include a defacto partner and former defacto partners.
- Ensuring that there are powers and discretions available to the trustee on distribution of income and recategorisation of that income.
- Reviewing the vesting date to ensure that it has not expired and examine whether or not it can be extended.
- Including a provision to enable a beneficiary to surrender or renounce his interest in the trust fund. This is also useful in the context of social security planning.
- Including trustee indemnity clauses which are essential to avoid personal liability to directors of trustee companies.
- Ensuring that there is power for appointors to appoint additional or new trustees.
- Provide a provision for the incapacity of guardians and appointors.
It has been 6 years since many of our client’s Trust Deeds were updated so now is the time to consider reviewing and updating your Deed to ensure it captures all of the changes to Trust Law during this time. Please contact our office if you would like to discuss this further.
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Congratulations on Years of Service with Byfields
Byfields would like to recognise and congratulate Lilja Bosenberg (Narrogin office) who has achieved 10 years of continued service with the firm.
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