Category: Summary Archives

In an article for the website Accountants Daily, Miranda Brownlee talks about the apprehension Taxpayers Australia has in regards to the robo-advice and why the organisation feels banks might shrewdly manipulate them to highlight their own SMSF products.

While the not-for-profit body is not worried about various independent groups reaping the benefits of the robo-advice formula, it feels that the big institutions entering the robo-advice niche could spell trouble. With little or no hint of the algorithms used, the big institutions might use the space to give their own products a boost.

You can read the original article here.

An article on the website Professional Planner talks about a new legislation which deals with the limited recourse borrowing arrangement (LRBA). While the bare trustees are involved in the acquisition of assets through LRBA, the ATO feels that what is being referred to as a bare trust can be a holding trust in actuality.

There are certain tax issues that could arise out of the present imbroglio. These include, but may not be restricted to, 1) whether the holding/bare trust requires filing a separate IT return 2) whether first party can claim interest deductions 3) CGT events of the nature E2 and E5 and 4) issues pertaining to franking credits.

You can read the original article here.

An article on the SMSF Adviser talks about ASIC’s civil action against Active Super and the corporate regulator’s pursuit of a contravention declaration, added to a banning order against a Gold Coast businessman. If ASIC has its way, Craig Gore and a few others will be restrained from offering any financial services for a period ranging from 7 years up to a lifetime. The indictment on Mr. Gore is fraudulent involvement in $4 million raised from investors in the ‘self-managed’.

The ground ASIC lays can be read out simply. Mr. Gore has offered financial services without holding an AFSL license and this amounts to unlicensed conduct and passage of misleading information.

You can read the original article here.

In an article for the Sydney Morning Herald, Nerida Cole writes that the Federal Budget has kept nearly mum on the Superannuation changes but it does not imply that the issue will be put in the backburner for long.

In this budget, there has been a minor talk about imposition of extra penalty units in the event of breach of the Superannuation law. Also, the budget has addressed how the terminally ill can access their SMSF pool better. But this is all that got discussed under the head ‘Superannuation’. The Australian tax system is under review and the White Paper will certainly talk about structural recommendations; but that is for some other day.

You can read the original article here.

In an article for the website The Adviser, James Mitchell talks about how the whole data surrounding lenders targeting SMSF investors is being misinterpreted. James hickey from Deloitte feels that it is the non-SMSF investors who have taken the bigger pie of the mortgage settlement cake. Refinancers, non-SMSF investors, first home buyers and owner-occupiers also took the main portion of the mortgage settlements.

You can read the original article here.

The MFAA convened a group of influential stakeholders to represent the financial services industry as Treasury takes a look at the key aspects of the SMSF sector.

The MFAA sought for support from the Financial Planning Association of Australia or FPA, the Association of Financial Advisers or AFA, and the Commercial Asset Finance Broker Association or CAFBA for its submission to the Financial System Inquiry.

A joint response that engages with these industry bodies should boost the impact of the submission significantly, the MFAA said.

Providing the government with a comprehensive submission from the broader industry is more important than small multiple submissions that the government needs to decipher, according to MFAA chief executive Siobhan Hayden.

In demonstrating an industry unity and support for initiatives currently under review, there’s no better idea than to have a shared voice.

The initiative of the MFAA to unite the other industry bodies comes after former MFAA president and Bernie Lewis executive chairman Mark Lewis told The Adviser last year that industry groups representing financial planning, mortgage broking and accounting must form deeper and stronger relationships to help with the convergence of the professions. In his statement, a deeper relationship needs to be built with the accounting associations. A mutual respect that needs to be found between associations and some communication from each of them to their membership that convergence is happening and that associations are working together to help facilitate the convergence.

He also adds that mortgage broking faced the biggest challenge, as compared with planning and accounting, when it comes to being viewed as a professional industry.

Check the rest of the article here.