Brett Davies Lawyers

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24/05/2016

How to remove dead Trustees from your SMSF

Removing Trustee and Members from your SMSF There is a good reason in wanting to share your SMSF with others such as your spouse, children, in-laws and business partners. After all, they are expensive to operate and to have the cost divided by 4 people makes it cheaper. However, the […]

08/04/2016

Drafting Div 7A Loans – ATO’s 4 concerns

The ATO has just audited my new client’s Div 7A agreement. It did not go well. Many Div 7A Loan agreements are not ‘commercial’ and therefore not valid based on 4 common drafting errors: The Div 7A Loan must be signed as a ‘Deed’ not as an ‘agreement’. ‘Agreements’ require […]

02/04/2016

A new way of defining Trust Income for fixed trusts – AMIT

A new way of defining Trust Income for fixed trusts – AMIT The Federal Government is kindly giving Trustees of fixed trusts a new way of calculating trust income, distribution and attributions. This is under the AMIT (Attribution Managed Investment Trust) rules. It starts 1 July 2016, but you have […]

29/03/2016

Reversionary Pension to love child

Muriel’s husband died a few years ago. At 54 she fell in love again and was the oldest mother in her city. She called her love child Colin. Her two oldest children, Ian and Brian, are successful engineers. Muriel’s assets are all in her Self-Managed Super Fund. As the sole director […]

28/03/2016

Employee couldn’t take boss’s clients for 6-months – thanks to a non solicitation clause

Employee couldn’t take boss’s clients for 6-months – thanks to a non-solicitation clause The government does not want to stop your ex-employees from working in their chosen trade or profession. Irrespective of what you put in your Employment Contract: a financial planner can continue to be a financial planner: see […]

12/01/2016

Crowdfunding kills brokers – accountants and advisers take over

Bypassing the stockbroker, mum and dads, aided by the adviser and accountants can directly invest in public businesses and start-ups. The Crowd-sourced Funding Bill issues in a new stream of business for advisers and accountants to help Australians invest via equity crowdfunding. However, the proposed legislation is too restrictive. Only […]

04/01/2016

Tax by Stealth

Tax by stealth – the shameful growth of the Australian tax system The Australian tax system has changed significantly since the end of the 19th century. The six colonies raised the bulk of their tax revenue from selective customs and excise duties. The original design of the tax systems of […]

07/11/2015

Disabled dad has $9m, two children and no Will – Statutory Will to the rescue

Statutory Will A Statutory Will is a Will written by the Court for you – before you die. Ten years ago Rolf suffered a ‘near fatal’ car accident. The Court said that from that moment on he had ‘no testamentary capacity, no current Will and no real or even […]