Continuing Professional Education is something we all need to do to stay registered as tax practitioners. But there are many common misconceptions about CPE. At least our understanding of CPE was fuzzy at the best, and wrong at the worst of times.
So we went to see Ian Taylor, the Chair of the Tax Practitioners Board, that reviews our CPE. We had 10 light bulb moments during this talk with Ian. Here is what we learned.
The Code of Conduct lists the professional and ethical standards for our work as tax practitioners. Falling short of the code of conduct can mean the loss of our livelihood with everything that this entails. So knowing a thing or two about the Code of Conduct is vital.
In this episode Ian Taylor, the Chair of the Tax Practitioners Board, walks us through the details of the Code of Conduct.
Property depreciation can save our clients a lot of money. But the rules around property depreciation are confusing at the best of times. There are a lot of ifs and whens.
In this episode Bradley Beer of BMT shares his knowledge and expertise around property depreciation and discusses the different options available to property investors.
SMSF Adviser May 2018 Update is a quick walk through the top trending updates in May 2018. Miranda Brownlee writes for SMSF Adviser and covers over 20 stories a week, all about SMSF. We asked Miranda what happened in May. Here is what we learned.
How to register as a tax practitioner? We all ask this question once we decide to set up shop. But how do we do that?
The question actually throws a very wide net. There are tax and BAS agents as well as tax financial advisers. And then there are the various small groups who have to register with the Tax Practitioners Board (TBP). And each of these groups have different hurdles to take.
The Story of Class is not just a story about Class. It is also a story about the SMSF industry and how it changed. How our tax practice changed. How we changed.
In this episode Kevin Bungard, the CEO of Class, talks about how Class started, where it is now and where it is going.
SMSF update after update seems to hit us. The legislation is constantly changing. Even though the super changes as of 1 July 2017 are done and dusted, some issues among these received less limelight. And some issues continue to need our attention.
In this episode Daniel Mikhail of Partners Wealth Group walks us through the tricky and easily overlooked parts of the super reform.
Div 7a debt forgiveness is a lot less common than its better known side-kicks - Div 7a loans and Div 7A payments. But still an important area to know your way around. And an issue best to be avoided.
But don't take our word for it. Peter Adams makes a lot more sense than we do. In this third and final episode of our short Div 7A series Peter Adams of Augmentor in Sydney talks about Div 7a Debt Forgiveness.
Div 7A payments can turn into an expensive exercise. And don't just think of payments as such, but also consider the transfer or provision of company assets. Like the private use of a company owned beach house, painting or car. s 109 C can rear its head when you least expect it.
In this episode Peter Adams of Augmentor gives a very helpful overview of what s 109 C is all about and how to avoid the issue.
A loan from a private company to a shareholder or associate is treated as a deemed dividend, unless repaid in time or subject to an exclusion. That is Div 7A loans in one sentence. But there is a lot more to it.
In this episode Peter Adams of Augmentors will walk you through Div 7A loans and ways to get around a deemed dividend.
Earnout arrangements are quite common within the professional services industry. When you buy or sell an accounting or tax practice, you will often sign an earnout arrangement.
In this episode Patrick Huang of Argyle Lawyers in Sydney explains what an earnout arrangement is and how to tax these.
At the very start it looks so easy. You just go and buy what you need. But of course the road to an acquisition is not as straight forward as that.
In this episode Steven Fine of Growth Focus will walk you through the ins and outs of buying an accounting practice.
Pension Strategies post 1 July 2017 have changed. Originally most of us focused on optimising contributions and staying clear of the $1.6 cap. But focus has now shifted to the impact these changes will have on pension strategies and estate planning.
In this episode Daniel Mikhail of Partners Wealth Group goes through the various options and issues around pension strategies post 1 July 2017.
Innovation in Australian law firms is not a topic you would expect in a tax news podcast. But think about how similar the work in tax, accounting and legal practices really is. So it is worth looking over the fence to see what is happening next door. Maybe they thought of something we didn't.
In this episode Paul Baker and Zile Yu of Meridian Lawyers discuss innovation in Australia's legal industry and how Meridian Lawyers spends $2.7m on new developments.
Online SMSF auditing software is the way of the future. The challenge is integration and set up. But this is changing fast.
Manoj Abichandani is the head and brains behind onlinesmsfaudit.com.au and an expert in the field of online SMSF auditing software. In this episode Manoj explains how online SMSF auditing software works and how it will change the way SMSF accountants and auditors will collaborate.
Offshoring has a negative connotation. We think of shoddy work, delays, miscommunication and complete disasters. But it doesn't have to be this way. Offshoring, if done well, can give you an edge. Allow you to attempt and achieve things you otherwise couldn't. Or it might save your business if you are sailing close to the edge.
In this episode Mike O'Hagan of Mike's Buiness Tours shares his experience and knowledge about offshoring to the Philippines.
Most accounting and tax practitioners will only ever sell a practice once in their lifetime, maybe twice. So we don't get any practice runs. Rather the opposite - we go straight to the final.
In this episode Steven Fine of Focus Growth will walk us through the top 10 mistakes sellers make when selling an accounting practice.
Running into legal issues when buying or selling a business can cost buyers and vendors a lot of time and money. Most of the common pitfalls are not rocket science. In fact they are often easy to navigate around. But just so easy to forget and overlook.
In this episode Patrick Huang of Argyle Lawyers goes through the most common legal issues when buying or selling a business.
Data feeds are a cornerstone of any cloud based accounting software. They save us time and hence money. But how do they actually work?
In this episode Tom Sargent, the Feeds Operations Manager of Class and Kevin Bungard, the CEO of Class give us a unique insight into how data feeds work.
Personal insurance inside or outside of Super - that is the question. If we get this wrong, our client might be paying for insurance they might never get under their current circumstances. So it is important to get this right.
In this episode Daniel Mikhail of Partners Wealth Group discusses the intricate details of personal insurance set ups.
When a client asks us to set up a trust or SMSF for them, we need a trust deed. At that moment we have to go somewhere to get this started. And chances are we will go online.
In this episode Manoj Abichandani of trustdeed.com.au will talk about the online offer of legal documents and company registrations.
How to sell my accounting practice - that is the first question that will follow your decision to sell. If you decide to sell, how will you actually do that? Nearly two-thirds of accounting firm owners are baby boomers and are starting to retire. At the moment it is still a sellers market out there with far more buyers than sellers. But this can change.
In this episode Steven Fine of Growth Focus will run you through the process and give you valuable advice on the way.
Common Reporting Standards are at the core of a perfect storm. It has become relatively easy to establish a company or trust in a tax haven. And at the same time it is becoming a lot easier for the ATO, and tax authorities worldwide, to find these companies or trusts.
And the main reason for this are the Common Reporting Standards. But what are these? Ben Sewell of Sewell & Kettle in Sydney provides a helpful overview.
Improving the Small Business CGT Concessions" is the title of the new exposure draft that the ATO issued on 8 February 2018. It is a response to the changes proposed in the 2017/18 budget. All this could spell trouble. Adding still more complexity to the small business CGT concessions.
Patrick Huang of Argyle Lawyers will walk you through the proposed changes.
If you have clients involved in research and development, the R&D Tax Incentive will give them a leg up – it might even save them from insolvency. But to point our clients in the right direction, we need to understand what the R&D tax incentive is about.
In this episode Kevin O'Hara of Techwitty will tell us who and what qualifies for the R & D incentive and how to go about it.
If you could change one thing about the Australian tax system, what would it be? And how would you change it?
This is the question Robert Deutsch, Senior Tax Counsel of The Tax institute, asked himself. He gathered tax professionals who are experts in their field to debate for or against change. The result was The Great Debate on 16 August 2017. A joint initiative of The Tax Institute and the Australian Tax Research Foundation, over 100 tax professionals attended the event.
Interest payments might be tax deductible while dividend payments never are. Dividend payments might be frankable while interest payments never are. So working out whether something is debt or equity can have huge tax consequences. But how to tell one from the other?
In this episode Scott Treatt of Pitcher Partners in Sydney walks us through Div 974 that governs the classification of debt and equity.
The December 2017 Class Benchmark Report is a great read giving valuable insights into the SMSF landscape.
In this episode we talk with Kevin Bungard, CEO of Class, about his thoughts and insights on some of the interesting statistics in the December edition.
The Panama Papers were the scandal the world had to have. The US was already two years into FATCA. And Australia deep into the implementation of CRS. It was as if the Panama Papers were to confirm the urgency with which things had to change. To show that Lichtenstein wasn't a one-off. The Paradise Papers a year later just confirmed that point, in case there were any doubters.
In this episode Ben Sewell of Sewell & Kettle in Sydney tells us how it happened and what it meant.
Car parking fringe benefits provided by employers to employees might be subject to FBT. But only if there is commercial all-day parking within 1km of the employer's premises. This is good news. It means that most employers in outer suburbs and country areas will never have to worry about car parking fringe benefits.
But this is also how car parking can suddenly turn into a huge FBT headache. Claire Thornett of WLF in Hobart has the details.
Estate planning is complex because it involves so many areas: trust law, super law, tax law, family law. There are so many questions to answer. So many documents to prepare. And then they all need to sync. And stand the test of time. Or a party contesting. And that is even before looking at the tax side.
In this episode Ben Symons, a barrister in Sydney, walks you through the legal side of super and testamentary trusts in estate planning.
BGL is currently the main player in the SMSF software market, holding the highest market share. That is an impressive achievement. How did this come about? How did BGL start? And where are they heading now?
Here is Ron Lesh, the managing director of BGL in Melbourne. Telling the story of BGL.
Offshore tax havens are used for many different purposes, but often to avoid tax. If some of our clients consider moving assets to an offshore tax haven or have already done so, then this affects us. Hence the need to better understand how tax havens work.
Ben Sewell of Sewell & Kettle in Sydney will discuss what it takes to set up shop in a tax haven.
Most of us will have had some clients last year with pension balances in excess of $1.6m. And so most of us partially commuted these balances back to accumulation. But are we allowed to do this without an AFSL – an Australian Financial Services Licence ? Are we providing financial advice the moment we whisper the word "commutation" into our clients' ears?
Here is David Moss of Merit Wealth in Sydney on this issue.
NSW payroll tax exemptions and rebates are specific to NSW. While Australia harmonised most of its payroll tax system in 2007, this didn't include exemptions and rebates. So to understand these we need to look at each Australian state and territory separately.
In this episode Andrew Fricot and Ankur Dhar of Revenue NSW in Parramatta discuss NSW payroll tax exemptions and rebates.
Mortgage brokering is a $344b industry and sitting right in front of us in the supply chain, meaning mortgage brokers get involved at the very start of an investment cycle, while we tend to come in later handling tax deductions, capital gains and other issues. And yet we tend to never meet or talk.
In this episode Jonathan Preston of Home Loan Experts in Sydney discusses the mortgage brokering industry and much more.
Meal entertainment is confusing. There are so many moving parts that it is easy to lose track. One reason for this confusion is that an employer can choose how to treat meal entertainment, either under Div 9A FBTAA or as a property or residual fringe benefit. This tends to make it so confusing. And the fact that the definition of meal entertainment is fairly vague.
In this episode Claire Thornett of WLF in Hobart discusses the ins and outs of meal entertainment.
Before the introduction of payroll grouping provisions, it was easy to avoid payroll tax. The payroll tax grouping provisions are to prevent this. If entities meet certain criteria, they are treated as one business with one threshold. 2007 saw the harmonisation of grouping provisions across Australia. So these provisions apply in all Australian states and territories.
Here are Andrew Fricot and Ankur Dhar of Revenue NSW in Parramatta with the ins and outs of grouping.
How do we convert a TRIS to an ABP after 1 July 2017? The industry had a clear idea how this should work. A TRIS converts to an ABP when meeting a condition of release - no need to stop and start. But then the ATO declared that a TRIS can't do that. A TRIS does not automatically convert to an account-based pension. A TRIS can only ever be a TRIS. This is bad news.
David Moss of Merit Wealth in Sydney discusses the current status of this issue.
The sole purpose test is one of the cornerstones of Australia's superannuation regulations. These regulations don't tell super funds how to invest. Instead they set a framework with the sole purpose test at its core. According to the ATO the sole purpose test is most commonly breached regulation.
In this episode Manoj Abichandani of Online SMSF Auditor talks about the issues he currently sees around the sole purpose test.
With time most of us will probably see a client go through a divorce or relationship breakdown. Which usually comes with a splitting of assets. And that often has significant tax implications.
Angelina Torrisi of Family Law Practice Australia will walk us through the legal side of divorce and relationship breakdowns. Because it is difficult to work on the tax side, when we know little about the legal side.
The new superannuation rules have changed estate planning within the SMSF environment post July 2017. Especially the transfer balance cap might make a previous strategy untenable. What are the issues? Will the trust deed cope with the intended changes? How to avoid the potholes?
In this episode Chloe Ward of Intello at the Gold Coast gives an overview of the issues SMSF estate planning faces post July 2017.
Most retail clients trading CFDs seem to make a loss, so it is important to clarify how these losses are treated under TR 2005/15. But before we do this in another episode, let's discuss what a CFD actually is.
Jonathan Preston of Home Loan Experts in Sydney traded CFDs for quite a few years and will walk us through the ins and outs of CFD trading.
Since 1986 Australia charges Fringe benefits tax (FBT) on most, but not all non-cash employee benefits an employer might provide to an employee. These non-cash employee benefits are referred to as fringe benefits. It is the employer who pays FBT even though the employee is the one receiving the benefit. In Australia FBT raises around $4 to $5b per tax year.
In this episode Claire Thornett of WLF in Hobart gives a comprehensive overview of the FBT system in Australia.
Events based reporting experienced an impressive turnaround. It changed from affecting every SMSF to only affecting funds with a balance of $1m or more. And it changed from a tight schedule of 10 days after month end to a much more lenient deadline of 28 days after quarter end. How did this turn around come about?
In this episode Ron Lesh of BGL in Melbourne tells his view of the events.
The US taxes its citizen and Green card holders based on worldwide income irrespective of residency. How does this affect the Australian de facto or spouse of a US citizen or Green card holder? Will they one day get a US tax assessment? When do you fall into the claws of the US tax system?
In this episode Jane Bruno of Bruno American Tax Services in Florida discusses when a nonresident alien spouse might be subject to US tax.
Payments to contractors are subject to payroll tax if paid under a 'relevant contract' without an exemption. This single sentence is full of issues. Who is a contractor? What is a relevant contract? What exemptions apply? Mistakes can cost a business a lot of money.
In this episode Andrew Fricot and Ankur Dhar of Revenue NSW in Parramatta give an answer to all these questions and more.
Are you ready for events based reporting? From 1 July 2018 all SMSFs in Australia need to report certain events to the ATO if they have members with total superannuation account balances of $1 million or more. What needs to be reported? When and how? What do we need to do and change to get ready for events based reporting?
Listen in as Chloe Ward of Intello on the Gold Coast gives an overview of the issues around events based reporting.
When a tax audit ends badly, you can object and appeal. But how does this work exactly? What other options do you have? What does it mean to serve a section 14 ZYA notice? How does an ADR work? Why the AAT ? And when to appeal directly to the Federal Court?
In this episode King Tan of King & Wood Mallesons in Sydney covers these questions and many more.
As a US citizen or Greencard holder, the US will tax your worldwide income irrespective of your residency, so even while you live in Australia. So you got the Australian tax system to deal with plus the US. Both countries will want to tax your income. How does that work? And how do you avoid paying tax twice?
In this episode Jane Bruno of Bruno American Tax Services in Florida discusses the US tax obligations for US Citizens and Greencard holders living in Australia.
We have all heard of Bywater, but what actually happened? How was it set up? And how did the ATO find out about it?
Robert Campbell of McLeod Campbell in Sydney wanted to know more and researched online what is publicly available. It is only a small insight but throws a fascinating light into a case that left many shaking their heads - and led the ATO to withdraw its longstanding TR 2005/17 replacing it with TD 2017/D.
A risk review or tax audit can easily escalate to a lengthy appeal and that costs time and money. So it is important to manage the risk review or tax audit correctly to stop this from happening. But how to achieve this? How to communicate with the ATO? And what to do when you lock heads?
In this episode King Tan of King & Wood Mallesons in Sydney freely shares his knowledge and expertise and digs deep into risk reviews and tax audits.
Residency is the gateway into our tax system. Something as fundamental as this should result in a clear answer. Resident or not. But it doesn't. Australia's residency rules are anachronistic and removed from the practical realities of life and commerce in the 21st century. Ceasing to be a resident is often very hard.
Too hard as Clint Harding of Arnold Block Leibler in Sydney will argue.
Tax residency and source are the gateway to the Australian taxation system and hence play such a vital role. If Australia was a low-tax haven, residency would probably never be an issue. But because Australia is a high tax country, residency is a constant source of conflict.
In this episode Robert Campbell of McLeod Campbell in Sydney digs deep into Australia's tax residency rules for individuals and companies.
Every ATO tax dispute is different. But taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture, there is a lifecycle that most ATO tax disputes run through, ending at different stages with different outcomes. From pre-engagement, risk reviews and tax audits to tax debt management, objections and appeals.
In this episode King Tan of King & Wood Mallesons in Sydney does a wide sweep through the lifecycle of a tax dispute.
Commercial debt forgiveness plays a big role in insolvency. But isn't a top-of-mind topic - bankruptcy sounds more dramatic. Nevertheless it is important. Get it wrong and you could tip an entity into insolvency - the exact opposite of what debt forgiveness is trying to achieve.
In this episode Robert Campbell of McLeod Campbell in Sydney gives a helpful overview of Australia's commercial debt forgiveness provisions.
Whether to offshore SMSF work or not sounds like a simple straight forward question. But it isn't. The answer - whether it is a yes or a no - has wide-ranging consequences affecting everything we do - internal processes, software, technology and of course HR. If we stay, how do we compete?
In this episode Chloe Ward of Intello in Brisbane tells us why Intello decided to keep all SMSF work in Australia and how they remained competitive.
Payroll tax is a state tax, so feels less important than the “big” federal taxes. We tend to know little about it as we start out. And it has a relatively high threshold, so might not affect many of our clients anyway. But forgetting payroll tax can cost dearly.
In this episode Andrew Fricot and Ankur Dhar of Revenue NSW in Parramatta discuss the parts of payroll tax legislation that have been harmonised across Australia. So this episode will apply to wherever you are in Australia.
