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Category: Compliance

1-12 out of 108 results.

D’oh! DDO rules turn some funds into a punching bag

The Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO) come into effect in two weeks. They will change the way banks promote products, force some small funds to close to new members and push issues into the listed space.

Avoid these top five errors in your SMSF annual return

The Australian Taxation Office has issued a directive about the top five errors in SMSF annual returns. Although many leave these to an administrator, it's worth knowing what's happening behind the scenes.

Watch your SMSF’s annual return this year

The best way to preserve your SMSF’s favoured status is to make sure the fund’s annual return reaches the ATO on time. There are new rules this year that every SMSF trustee should know.

APRA's executive remuneration changes are unwelcome

APRA is pushing for executive remuneration to move to non-financial metrics, which will lead to poor outcomes for all stakeholders. Investors should resist and vote against such measures at AGMs.

Four things advisers can do to manage conflicts

Thanks to the Royal Commission, everybody is aware of the problems with vertical integration and in-house conflicts for financial advisers. What should advisers and their clients look for?

5 more mistakes to avoid with SMSFs

SMSFs are useful retirement vehicles, but there are rules to follow which can easily be overlooked in haste. Run your eyes over the next five rules in this continuing list.

Westpac case and the digital fix for SOA mess

Recent legal cases involving Westpac and BT put to rest any view that 'caveat emptor' (buyer beware) applies to 'no' and 'general' advice service models, even though those models do not attract a best interests duty.

Facebook, Google need new business model

It is better for management and regulatory bodies to work together to preserve the innovative engines of Facebook and Google, not impose painful government intervention.

Labor’s $3,000 cap on managing tax affairs

Labor is proposing to cap at $3,000 the amount that can be claimed as a tax deduction for managing tax affairs. There are many circumstances where taxpayers need to spend more than this.

3 key risks: banks are too big to behave badly

Australia's major banks face many challenges but they are strong and remarkably adaptive and resilient. They have also finally accepted they are too big to behave badly.

Court holds SMSF trustees accountable

A recent case highlights the importance of SMSF trustees exercising discretion to pay death benefits in good faith, with real and genuine consideration and in accordance with the purpose of the conferred power.

Sole purpose test needs level playing field

An inducement offer by a super fund is currently active, and it is creating confusion about what marketing is permissible, given that previously, regulators held such to be in violation of the sole purpose test.

Most viewed in recent weeks

Australians unprepared for $3.5 trillion wealth transfer

A new report suggests that Australians are ill prepared for the largest intergenerational wealth handover in history. It's estimated $3.5 trillion in assets will be transferred from Baby Boomers to their children by 2050.

Welcome to Firstlinks Edition 534 with weekend update

Many people in the Firstlinks community have been reading my articles and editorials for 10 years or more, and worked with me for decades before that, and deserve an explanation for why I have suddenly stopped writing each week.

  • 9 November 2023

18 rules for ageing well

The rules to age successfully include, 'the unexamined life lasts longer', 'change no more than one-eighth of your life at a time', 'nobody is thinking about you', and 'pursue virtue but don’t sweat it'.

Why the ASX 200 has gone nowhere in 16 years

The ASX 200 is around the same price that it was 16 years ago. The poor long-term performance can be largely blamed on our taxation system, which encourages companies to pay out most of their earnings as dividends.

The challenges of building a lazy portfolio

John Bogle famously advocated a two-fund portfolio of US stocks and bonds. Recently, I tried to create an Australian version of the Bogle portfolio and found that what seems simple can quickly turn complicated.

SAPTO and LITO, or do you really need an SMSF?

Money withdrawn from super after age 60 is tax-free but less understood are arrangements that allows a couple over the age of 67 to earn up to $57,948 per year outside super and pay no tax with LITO and SAPTO.

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