How to Reduce Tax and Build Your Wealth Whilst Living Offshore If you are living and working overseas there are a number of additional factors you need to be aware of when managing your money. First and foremost, you may no longer be a tax resident in Australia. Instead, you may have become a tax […]
The Key to Successful Investing in the Share Market In the short term, the share market is an irrational place. Prices jump all over the place and in a lot of cases, there is no evidence or fact to explain such large swings in share values. Instead, most of the time such price volatility is […]
With around 85% of financial advisers affiliated with product providers, it’s not surprising that managed funds are recommended to clients more than any other investment type. But are managed funds really the best investment for the majority of people? How do they stack up against investing directly?
The 31.5% penalty tax applying to excess concessional super contributions has (finally) been scrapped. The old scheme was unfair in that excess contributions were taxed at 46.5% (including the 15% contributions tax that ordinarily applies to concessional contributions) which is equivalent to the highest marginal rate. Furthermore, the excess contribution amount was assessed under the […]
The government last week announced how pre-FoFA conflicted remuneration arrangements would be treated going forward. Simply, all existing arrangements will be grandfathered indefinitely. There’s more. A 12 month transition period (to 30 June 2014) was also announced for financial planners. During this time new clients are still able to enter into pre-FoFA (conflicted) fee arrangements. […]
The Tax Agent Services Act (TASA) legislation was passed by the House of Representatives recently. Originally, the legislation proposed that all financial planners providing tax advice in the context of financial advice would need to register with the Tax Practitioners’ Board (TPB) from 1 July 2013. However, the legislation was unexpectedly amended before being passed […]
There were no further changes to superannuation announced in the recent Federal Budget, but the Government has wasted no time in moving on its previously announced proposal to increase the concessional contribution cap from 1 July 2013. On 5 April, Minister Shorten announced a $10,000 increase to the annual $25,000 cap and Treasury have already […]
A lot has changed since the start of 2013. A Federal Election has been announced by our (now marginal) Government, growth in China has eased more than expected, the budget deficit has ballooned further and the share market has risen considerably without supporting fundamentals. Furthermore, our currency remains at all-time highs and official interest rates […]
