Posts Categorized: SMSF

Are you Super Stream ready?

Are you Super Stream ready?  You need to be as it is the only way that employers can both report and pay employer super contributions after 30th June 2016.

It won’t apply to personal contributions nor to employer contributions to a related party’s self managed super fund.  Every other employer contribution by every employer in the country must be made through Super Stream.

You can learn more by watching the following video from the Australian Taxation Office.

Or better yet ask us to help you personally.

At MRS, we will spend today planning for your success tomorrow.

She may not be right mate & death benefit nominations

She’ll be right mate. Australians have a great outlook on life don’t they?  Sometimes though this casual nature can come at great cost.  Like with not ensuring their estate and in particular their super gets into the right hands.

Upon death, super can be paid to anyone who is a dependent. Close family members can receive it tax free.  All of this is critical in ensuing that the pool of your life’s hard work and sacrifices gets into the right hands and does so in the most effective manner.

Super is today most people’s biggest or second biggest asset. The way of ensuring it gets into the right hands is to make a death benefit nomination.  There are various forms of nominations – the right one for you depends on your circumstances and what you wish to have happen.  This is all critically important where large sums are involved, particularly in respect of a self managed super fund as control may fall to just one side of the family.

If you would like to know more, then attend the upcoming Maggs Reid Group seminar on death benefits. This free seminar will also explain what is good and bad and the opportunities from the 2016 Federal Budget.  We will also be exploring some great business tools and solutions to small and medium sized business owners alike.

At MRS, we will spend today planning for your success tomorrow.

 

Super work test

If you watched the analysts on TV after the budget or read the press thereafter, you would understandably think that there was only bad news in the 2016 Federal Budget. Not so.  One welcome announcement will be that the super work test is to be removed as form July 2017.

So from July 2017, anyone aged between 65 and 75 will automatically be able to make a contribution into super. Currently, those aged between 65 and 75 can only make a contribution into super after they have satisfied a work test of having worked 40 hours in a 30 day period.

This will be a very welcome change for those wishing to still make deductible (concessional) contributions to reduce their tax. It is also a way for those who fail the life time non-concessional cap of being able to get money into super.

Keep an eye out for future blogs on other ways you might benefit from the 2016 Federal Budget.

At MRS, we will spend today planning for your success tomorrow.

The NAB share split

Shareholders in the National Australia Bank had a choice to make last week. The board recommended that the holding in the UK Clydesdale bank be split into a separate company.  If passed, smaller shareholders then had the option of deciding as to whether they wished to sell their shares.

There are some interesting observations to be made about this situation.

What was the cost of demerger booklet? Not only was it almost 600 pages, but the very large accountants and lawyers firms involved would have billed a fortune for their work.

For those holding their shares in their self managed super fund (SMSF), a new holding in a UK bank would be an international investment. This raises the question of whether one’s SMSF’s Investment Strategy allows for such an investment.

All SMSF’s are required to have an investment strategy and to review it regularly. As well as considering the insurance needs of the members and other requirements, the document must consider:-

  • In what areas the SMSF will invest – such as cash, Australian shares, international shares, property and whether it will do so directly or indirectly.
  • Diversification.
  • Liquidity (which is particularly important for funds paying pensions and possible lump sums).
  • The members’ needs and circumstances.

International shares are considered a different class of asset as they involve different rules, currency exposure and a breadth of exposure often not available within the Australian share market (which is dominated by banks and miners).

So does your investment strategy contemplate such an investment in international shares? A similar question need be answered when a fund buys a commercial or residential property.

If not, to avoid committing a breach, you will need to amend your Investment Strategy. As accountants, until 30th June, we can provide you with a template for you to complete.  However, the Corporations Laws precludes us from making a recommendation as to whether you should hold these share or not and whether you should invest in such a class of assets.  If you would like assistance, you could though seek advice from Maggs Reid Financial Planners Pty Ltd within which employs Arianna McKean and Alex Stewart are as authorised representatives.  Maggs Reid Financial Planners Pty Ltd is a corporate authorised representative of Securitor Financial Group Ltd (ABN 48 009 189 495).

At MRS, we will spend today planning for your success tomorrow.

Avoid the avoidable

The ATO is progressively becoming more and more active in demanding the lodgement outstanding documents and issuing fines.

Fines have become more expensive from last month as the basic penalty unit has increased from $170 to $180.

By way of example, this means that:-

  • A small business which lodges a BAS will be fined $180 for every month that it is lodged late up to a maximum of $900.
  • Under the trustee penalty regime that has applied to self managed super fund trustees since July 2014, the maximum fine per trustee (and which must be paid from their own funds, not the super funds) has increased to $17,000 from $18,000. So, for say a mum and dad fund for which they are trustees in their own name which commits two serious breaches, the fines are $34,000 to both trustees. If a company was trustee, then the directors would collectively be fined $34,000.

Some people decide not to lodge as they can’t pay the tax then and there. This is not the best course of action. It can be said that the ATO issue fines and interest to encourage people to lodge as they just want to know who owes them what. They are actually quite reasonable in offering payment plans for up to six months and to do so on an interest free basis.

So don’t be afraid of lodging – and avoid the fines.

 

What your accounting system should do for you

Sadly, for most small businesses, all that their accountant is interested in is their Tax Return and BAS’s.  As important as the past is, it is the future that is more important.

One of the many unfortunate consequences is that most small business owners (who aren’t accountants and would like help improving their business) run an accounting system of little use.  It will help the accountant prepare annual Tax Returns and generate BAS’s – but little else.

A proper accounting and reporting system will include such features as:-

  • Report on the true gross profit from your core business activity. It shames me that many of my fellow accountants let their clients exclude many of the production costs from their cost of goods sold. You have to know what you margins are!
  • Report on different segments of your business.
  • Have a system to report and monitor key numbers on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.
  • Contain estimates for such things as depreciation and interest – the year end financials and tax should never be a surprise.
  • Monitoring of KPIs and key drivers.

Such a reporting system will enable a business owner to better understand their business and be able to focus on the matters, which if controlled, will improve the success of their business.

At MRS, we are able to build on this core need and provide further reports and coaching to help our clients towards greater success.

We invite you to look at our service offering as per the services tab of this web page.

More importantly, we welcome the opportunity to meet with you to gain an understanding of your business and determine the ways in which we can help you.  This initial meeting is free of charge.  We welcome your call.

 

At MRS, we will spend today planning for your success tomorrow.

Upcoming deadlines for Dec 14 qtr

For those of you who are employers, Wednesday 28th January is the end date for satisfying your SGC super obligation for the December quarter.  Late payments will attract substantial interest and penalties.  Furthermore, a tax deduction can’t be claimed for the late payment.  This is therefore the most important obligation to be paid.  I therefore recommend that payments be made by Friday 23rd at the latest to guard against processing delays.

For those who lodge a quarterly BAS or IAS, your December quarter activity statement is due to be lodged by 3rd March.  As these quarterly activity statements already receive a one month extension, the ATO doesn’t grant any further extensions.  Please remember that from 30th June 2014, electronic lodgement of any activity statement will result in no further paper activity statements being issued.  We again recommend businesses to register for the ATO Taxpayer Portal to enable electronic lodgement and to more easily liaise with the ATO, check various tax records and transact in a more efficient manner.

Please note that lodgement of an activity statement (even if it is nil statement) and payment are two separate requirements.  Late lodgement attracts a minimum non-deductible fine of $170 for every 28 days that a form is lodged late whereas as late payment results in an interest levy.  Not that we encourage it, but should you not be able to pay an activity statement in full, do not defer lodgement as the possible fines are significant.  The ATO will of course in time identify that an activity statement liability has not been paid and follow it up; but by this time though the liability should be paid in full anyway and at worst, incur a deductible interest charge far less than any late lodgement penalty.  The ATO still seem to be granting payment arrangements on reasonable terms (although not as easily as before).

What Your Accountant Should Do For You

Ask now what you can do for your accountant…
…ask what your accountant can do for you.

Running a business consumes your life and requires expertise and guidance in respect of so many matters. How much more successful would you be if your accountant was focused on your long term success and security?

Does your accountant

  1. Have an interest in your business?
  2. Or do they just prepare Tax Returns and BAS’s for you?
  3. Meet with you regularly?
  4. Come to your office (if not how do they understand what you do)?
  5. Set up your accounting system so that it reports on your business?Or do they just use it to prepare Tax Returns and BAS’s)?
  6. Modified your reporting system to monitor the key drivers within your business?Can they show you the outcome of making changes to those key drivers?Or are you just going to keep doing tomorrow what you did yesterday (and somehow expect a different result)?
  7. Send you a free newsletter, e-mail reminders and other educational material as well as the opportunity to attend seminars & workshops?
  8. Have ever changing staff?
  9. Return calls and e-mails promptly?
  10. Have a panel of trusted advisors to assist with other specialised areas?

If your answers are mainly no and you would like an accountant whose focus is your future success and security, then don’t hesitate to call Alex on 9899-7511 to arrange an obligation free 1 & ½ hour meeting.Our clients can answer yes to these and other questions.