News

Renting out your home – and the GST and negative gearing changes
One of the many areas where the big changes to negative gearing and Capital Gains Tax may have an effect is where you use the “absence concession” to allow you to “continue to treat” your home as your CGT-free main residence during an extended absence from the home – including where you rent it out…

High Court rules unpaid trust amounts are not loans
What this means for you If your family trust gives a company a share of trust income but does not actually pay it across, the High Court has confirmed this is not automatically treated as a loan back to the trust. That matters, because being treated as a loan could trigger an unexpected tax bill…

The new 30% minimum tax on capital gains: what it means for self-funded retirees
The Government has legislated major changes to capital gains tax (CGT). From 1 July 2027, the 50% CGT discount for individuals, trusts and partnerships will be replaced. In its place comes cost base indexation and a new 30% minimum tax rate on capital gains. How the 30% minimum tax works Under the current rules, you…

Borrowing in your SMSF: what is changing
Self-managed super funds are generally not allowed to borrow money. A limited recourse borrowing arrangement, or LRBA, is one of the few exceptions. It lets a fund borrow to buy a single asset, with the lender’s rights limited to that asset alone. If the loan goes bad, the lender can take the asset but cannot…

Family Trusts – Time to get some timely advice
If you have a family trust there are two recent major (very major) things that have happened that will affect the way they will be taxed in the future. The first is the announcement in the Budget that trust income will now be taxed to the trust at a minimum rate of 30% – regardless…

CGT and options –when is the asset acquired?
There was a recent case before the Federal Court which had to deal with the issue of when is an asset acquired for CGT purposes when an option is exercised to acquire it. Is it at the time the option agreement is entered into or is it when the option is exercised? And it is…