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Age pension, will I qualify when I reach pension age?

age pension

Age Pension, will I qualify when I reach pension age? As we start to think about retirement, one of the first questions many of us ask is “Will I qualify for the Age Pension?” To help you understand your eligibility, we outline the basic thresholds that apply under the different means tests and what types of assets and income sources are included.

All News Articles

 Hunter Partners have published News articles on this site for your information

 

ASIC enforcement action on SMSF auditors over independence

ASIC enforcement action

ASIC enforcement action on SMSF auditors over independence. ASIC has released information on its enforcement action against over 100 SMSF auditors (some referred to it by the ATO for various breaches including not meeting independence requirements, not complying with auditing standards, not reporting non-compliance, and not meeting the fit and proper person requirement).

ASIC is lifting standards in the financial advisory industry

ASIC is Lifting standards

ASIC is lifting standards in the financial advisory industry. Education, training and ethical standards in the financial advice industry are about to be lifted, with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) releasing proposed updates to various competence requirements for financial advice licensees.

ASIC recommends SMSF reforms including trustee education

ASIC recommends SMSF reforms

ASIC recommends SMSF reforms including trustee education. As a part of hearings into ASIC’s oversight functions, the regulator presented the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services with a range of policy solutions to be considered to remedy deficiencies identified in the SMSF space from its recent reports.

Business real property can be moved into your SMSF

Business real property

Business real property can be moved into your SMSF. Transferring a commercial property into an SMSF can be a great way to build retirement savings and take advantage of the concessionally taxed SMSF environment. But when acquiring property from a related party, it’s vital the property meets the “business real property” test.

Can I access my super early? I need help with expenses

Can I access my super early

Can I access my super early? I need help with expenses. Thinking about tapping into your super early to help with mounting expenses? Mortgage repayments, medical treatments and hard-to-meet living costs are all potentially valid reasons for early access to super – but the eligibility rules are strict.

Capital gains tax and death, it’s not the end of the world

Capital gains tax and death

Capital gains tax and death, it’s not the end of the world. There’s nothing as certain as death and taxes, but tax on death is not so clear. The good news is that when an asset passes to a beneficiary, capital gains tax (CGT) generally does not apply. But down the track when the beneficiary decides to sell that asset, there are many forks in the path.

Consumers to have better protection under new ASIC powers

Consumers

Consumers to have better protection under new ASIC powers. In response to the recommendations of the Banking and Financial services Royal Commission and the ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce Report, the government has proposed new enforcement and supervision powers for ASIC to restore consumer confidence in the financial system, particularly in relation to financial advice.

Downsizer superannuation contribution, will it work for you?

Downsizer superannuation contribution

Downsizer superannuation contribution, will it work for you? The government’s new opportunity for “downsizing” Australians to contribute some of the sale proceeds from their home into superannuation may appear to be a very attractive strategy for many individuals who wish to use equity in their home to boost their retirement savings.

Financial Planning tells you About Us and our Dealer Group

Financial Planning tells you about Hunter Partners and our Dealer Group

Financial Planning

About Hunter Partners and our Dealer Group

About Usgives you an understanding of the advice and services in which we are authorised by InterPrac to provide to you 

Our Dealer Group is InterPrac Financial Services Pty Ltd. We are Authorised Representatives of InterPrac Financial Services Pty Ltd.

Hunter Partners are Financial Planners with offices in the Townsville suburb of Kirwan and a serviced office in Hughenden. We can help you to achieve your Financial Planning goals by working with you to formulate a financial plan, then we can help you to implement that plan. We can help you to establish an investment portfolio inside or outside of superannuation or we can help you to select a superannuation fund that will work for you and be flexible enough to meet your needs as your circumstances change. We can help you to explore if a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) may be an option for you.

We set out some of the services we can offer you in 'About Us', we then go on to introduce InterPrac Financial Services Pty Ltd in 'Our Dealer Group'. InterPrac provide us with the services and support that we need to provide our services to you.

First Home Super Saver Scheme update, how does it work

First Home Super Saver Scheme

First Home Super Saver Scheme update, how does it work. We start the new year with headlines of “falling house prices”, but even if prices are set to come down and you keep a close eye on your finances, saving a deposit to buy your first home can be difficult.

Hunter Partners Dealer Group

Hunter Partners Dealer Group

Hunter Partners Dealer Group

InterPrac

Financial Planning

Hunter Partners operates its financial Planning business through Zara (NQ) Pty Ltd (Zara). InterPrac Financial Planning Pty Ltd (our Dealer Group) has appointed Zara as a Corporate Authorised Representative (ARN: 410255) and Stuart Hunter as an Associated Authorised Representative (ARN: 410276) of Zara.

InterPrac Financial Planning Pty Ltd (InterPrac) is an Australian Financial Services Licence holder. InterPrac offers a broad range of financial services that are backed by their ongoing support and expertise. Their size, skills and success enable us to offer first class personal services in financial planning, wealth creation and wealth preservation strategies, whilst at the same time ensuring that we're a progressive company in the ever evolving financial services profession.

Hunter Partners are able to provide the following financial planning services

  • Deposit Products;
  • Managed Investment Schemes including Unit Trusts, Investment Bonds, Direct Shares, Property Trusts, Growth Funds, Balanced Funds, Indexed Funds and Cash Management Accounts;
  • Share Market Investments;
  • Tax Effective Investments;
  • Mortgage Lending;
  • Superannuation, including Allocated Pensions, Rollovers, Personal Superannuation, Company Superannuation and Self Managed Superannuation Funds (SMSF);
  • Retirement Planning including aged care and estate planning;
  • Life Insurance Products, including Annuities, Term Insurance, Income Protection, Trauma and Total and Permanent Disability Insurance;
  • Margin Lending

InterPrac Financial Planning Pty Ltd is the holder of Australian Financial Services Licence No. 246638 under which InterPrac is authorised to carry on a financial services business which includes the provision of financial product advice and dealing in financial products.

Head Office:
InterPrac Financial Planning Pty Ltd
Level 8, 525 Flinders Street
Melbourne  VIC  3000

Contact Details:
Phone: 1800 700 666
Fax: (03) 9209-9770

Follow this link to read more about the InterPrac Privacy Policy

GENERAL ADVICE WARNING:
The information provided on this website has been provided as general advice only. We have not considered your financial circumstances, needs or objectives and you should seek the assistance of your InterPrac Financial Planning Authorised Representative before you make any decision regarding any products mentioned in this communication. Whilst all care has been taken in the preparation of this material, no warranty is given with respect of the information provided and accordingly neither InterPrac Financial Planning Pty Ltd nor its related entities, employees or agents shall be liable on any ground whatsoever with respect to decisions or actions taken as a result of you acting upon such information.

Limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBA) and SMSFs

Limited recourse borrowing arrangements

Limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBA) and SMSFs. Limited Recourse Borrowing Arrangements (LRBAs) allow an SMSF to borrow money for the purchase of a single asset (or a collection of identical assets that have the same market value) to be held in a separate trust.

LRBA changes may inadvertantly hinder SMSF gearing

LRBA changes

LRBA changes may inadvertantly hinder SMSF gearing. Limited recourse borrowing arrangements have allowed many SMSFs to successfully invest in assets they otherwise would not have been able to acquire.

Review highlights failings in superannuation system

Review highlights failings in super

Review highlights failings in superannuation system. The Productivity Commission’s recent report on Australia’s superannuation system reveals some concerning weaknesses in the APRA regulated funds sector, particularly for millions of member accounts in “MySuper” default funds.

Salary Sacrifice will help get the most from your salary

Salary Sacrifice arrangement
Salary Sacrifice will help get the most from your salary and wages while minimising your tax at the same time. Considering Salary Package Benefitsa salary packaging or salary sacrifice arrangement may be the way to go. While superannuation is one of the first things that pop up when talking about salary sacrifice, there are many other more interesting possibilities. Depending on your industry and what your employer will allow, it is possible to package a range of things including education or study payments, car repayments, general living expenses or even entertainment expense.
 With real wages not tipped to grow for a while, there is still a way that you can make the most of your money by salary packaging or through salary sacrifice arrangements if your employer has systems in place that allow for these types of arrangements.

Essentially, a salary sacrifice arrangement (sometimes also referred to as total remuneration packaging) is a formal agreement between an employer and employee whereby the employee agrees to receive a lower amount of pay each payday in return for the employer providing them with benefits of a similar value to the reduction in pay.

You may be thinking why it would be advantageous to receive less pay, the answer lies in the pre-tax and post-tax salary amounts. The amount that ends up in the bank every payday is your post-tax salary, that is the amount that you get after the tax is taken out. When you enter into salary sacrifice arrangements you may be able to pay for certain things from your pre-tax salary, which means your money goes further and you end up paying less tax.

Example

Ian receives a monthly pay of $1,000 before tax (pre-tax), say he pays 30% tax on the pay, that would mean his post-tax pay (the amount he receives in the bank) is $700 and $300 is withheld in tax. Ian has to pay for a course of study related to his work costing $200 each month, if he uses his after-tax pay to pay for the course he would only have $500 left. However, if his employer allows him to salary package the course of study and pay for it using his pre-tax salary, the scenario would be as follows:

Salary and wages before tax $1,000
Salary sacrifice amounts -$200
Salary and wages after salary sacrifice $800
Tax at 30% -$240
Post-tax salary (the amount received in the bank) $560

Therefore, as can be seen in this simple example, Ian would get $60 more per pay cycle just by taking advantage of a salary sacrifice arrangement.

If you think salary sacrifice may benefit you, note there are some requirements for it to be effective including:

  • the arrangement should be entered into before the work is performed (ie salary and wages, entitlements, bonuses etc that accrued before the arrangement was entered into cannot be a part of an effective salary sacrifice arrangement);
  • the arrangement should be in writing between you and your employer (but may be verbal in some instances);
  • there should be no access to the sacrificed salary (ie the sacrificed salary must be permanently forgone for the period of the arrangement).

Once the requirements are satisfied, there are no restrictions on the types of benefits that can be sacrificed, the most important thing is that the benefits form part of your remuneration, replacing what would otherwise be paid as salary. Probably the most common types of salary sacrifice arrangements would relate to superannuation and costs of study. However, depending on the industry and employer there may be many other types of benefits that could be included.

Salary Sacrifice, want more money in your pocket?

If you want to get more out of your wages and would like to find out how to structure and negotiate and effective salary sacrifice arrangement based on your unique situation, we have the expertise to help. Contact us today.

Hunter Partners are Accountants, Tax Agents and Financial Planners. We can assist you with all aspect of your accounting, tax and financial planning requirements, call Hunter Partners on (07) 4723-1223.

Selling shares, how much capital gains tax will you pay?

Selling shares

Selling shares, how much capital gains tax will you pay? Did you know that when you sell your shares, the size of your capital gains tax bill is affected by how long you’ve held the shares, and how you offset your capital gains and losses?

Setting up a SMSF, ensure it meets the sole purpose test

Setting up a SMSF

Setting up a SMSF, ensure it meets the sole purpose test. Setting up your own self-managed super fund (SMSF) can be a complex task even before you seek registration with the ATO. It’s important that the SMSF be set up correctly for the sole purpose of providing retirement benefits for their members.

Small business CGT concessions, when do I qualify?

Small business CGT concessions

Small business CGT concessions, when do I qualify? The small business CGT concessions are a great tool for business owners to transfer wealth into super. Here, we break down the two essential requirements you must first meet in order to access any of the concessions.

Small business super clearing house, are you signed up?

Small business super

Small business super clearing house, are you signed up? The small business superannuation clearing house (SBSCH) is a convenient service that allows a small business to make superannuation contributions for its employees in one single payment.

SMSF discretionary powers override wills with death benefits

SMSF discretionary powers

SMSF discretionary powers override wills with death benefits. Death of a family member is often a difficult time, but if the deceased was a member of SMSF, complications from trustee arrangements and payment of the death benefit can make a difficult time even worse for the family members.

SMSF improvements proposed by Government are coming

SMSF improvements

SMSF improvements that were proposed by the Government before the disruption of the Coronavirus epidemic are are again on the drawing board. The government confirmed it would go ahead with various proposals to improve the SMSF and super sector including flexibility measures. This included increasing the SMSF member limit, changes to the work test, bring forward rule and spousal contributions.

SMSF must have a sole purpose, does your fund comply?

SMSF

The sole purpose test is one the fundamental requirements for SMSFs to obtain tax concessions. It requires that the SMSF be maintained for the sole purpose of providing retirement benefits to its members or their dependents if a member dies before retirement.

SMSF property development arrangments on ATO radar

SMSF property development

In a recent regulator bulletin outlining ATO’s concerns about new and emerging arrangements that pose potential risks to SMSF trustees and their members, the growth in SMSF property development was highlighted as a main issue.

SMSF reduces rent and breaches compliance rules

SMSF reduces rent

SMSF reduces rent, breaches compliance rules. After previously providing business with administrative concessions, the ATO has now moved to provide some concessions and advice to SMSFs during this pandemic.

SMSF schemes, make sure your transfer is legitimate

SMSF

SMSF schemes, make sure your transfer is legitimate. Have you been advised to transfer your super to a self-managed super fund (SMSF)? Perhaps you have been told that you could withdraw your superannuation early, to pay off debt?

SMSF sole purpose test and fractional investments

SMSF sole purpose test

SMSF sole purpose test and fractional investments. Previously, it was thought that any benefit provided directly or indirectly to members or related parties of an SMSF from an investment would contravene the sole purpose test. However, a Full Federal Court decision has re-framed the sole purpose test which will provide some flexibility to trustees on certain investments.

SMSFs differ from other funds so understand the differences

SMSFs differ from other funds

SMSFs differ from other funds so understand the differences. Insurance and dispute resolution might not be high on your list of things to consider when starting up an SMSF, but these issues do affect SMSFs differently to public offer funds. What will you do if a dispute arises between SMSF members, and what does taking out insurance in an SMSF practically involve?

Sole purpose test is an area of concern for SMSF trustees

Sole purpose test

Sole purpose test is an area of concern for SMSF trustees. If you are the trustee of one of the approximately 577,000 SMSFs in Australia at the moment, there are some areas the ATO wants you to pay particular attention to including the sole purpose test, the in-house asset rules, unlawful schemes and arrangements, and dividend-stripping.

Super & Financial Planning

Hunter Partners have published articles categorised as Super & Financial Planning on this site for your information

Super and bankruptcy, can creditors access my benefits?

Super and bankruptcy

Super and bankruptcy, can creditors access my benefits? Superannuation is an effective investment structure for asset protection, but a questionable contribution into super could jeopardise some of your benefits in the event of bankruptcy. How you access your benefits can also make a big difference.

Super guarantee payments, make sure you get them right

Super guarantee

Super guarantee payments, make sure you get them right. Paying the right amount of super to your employees can at times be a complex exercise, with the threshold changes in the recent years and the contribution base which changes every year according to indexation factors.

Super opt out choice for high earners with multiple jobs

opt out choice

Super opt out choice for high earners with multiple jobs. If you’re a high income-earner with multiple employers, you may be aware of potential traps with compulsory super contributions that can lead to some hefty and unfair penalty taxes – and until now there’s been little anyone can do to avoid the problem.

Super transfer balance cap and new reporting events

Super transfer balance cap

Super transfer balance cap and new reporting events. Now that the transfer balance cap has been introduced to limit the amount of capital that can be transferred into the tax-exempt retirement phase, the ATO now requires certain events that track the movement of capital to be reported in a timely manner, depending on your super balance.

Superannuation changes introduced to help womens super

Superannuation changes

Superannuation changes introduced to help womens super. In a raft of initiatives aimed at improving economic outcomes for women, particularly in the superannuation space, the government has proposed changes, including extending the ability to access early release of superannuation for women experiencing family and domestic violence, better visibility over superannuation in divorce/separation proceedings, and actively reuniting lost and low-balance inactive super accounts with their owners.

Superannuation contributions, this will help you catch up

Superannuation contributions

Superannuation contributions, this will help you catch up. The government’s new measure to allow those with less than $500,000 in superannuation to “catch up” on missed superannuation contributions is a great opportunity for anyone who takes time out of work or otherwise has “lumpy” income that means they have a varying capacity to make contributions from year to year.

Superannuation savings increased by no cost strategies

Superannuation savings

Superannuation savings increased by no cost strategies. With all the pandemonium of the holiday season and the end of the year rush, your super is probably the last thing on your mind. However, this is precisely the right time to think about implementing some strategies to increase your super for the coming year.

Tax avoidance schemes, ATO warning to steer clear

tax avoidance

To many individuals, the difference between tax planning and tax avoidance is not immediately obvious, while the ATO considers the former to be a legal way to arrange your affairs to minimise the tax you pay, the latter could land you in legal hot water.