CGT relief still plaguing trustees, says former ATO exec
SMSF trustees continue to be under a number of misconceptions in relation to CGT relief in terms of what assets are eligible for the relief and at what point decisions must be made by.
Speaking to SMSF Adviser, McPherson Super Consulting director Stuart Forsyth said a large number of SMSF practitioners and trustees are still asking a lot of questions about the CGT relief or have completely misunderstood certain aspects of it.
“I’m seeing a few people running around, saying ‘You’ve got to register for CGT relief before 30 June’. Some of them seem to be indicating that there’s a decision that needs to be made about which assets to reset on 30 June and that it needs to be made before 30 June. I don’t know where they’re getting that from because it’s nonsense,” said Mr Forsyth.
The other area where there has been a lot of confusion, Mr Forsyth said, is in relation to what assets the CGT relief can be applied to.
“The other one that people struggle with, because it seems a little counter-intuitive, is where they’ve got $1.61 million and so they have to roll back $10,000 from pension to accumulation. As of the 30th of June, all of the assets in the fund can potentially get CGT relief,” he explained.
“People say, ‘Well that doesn’t seem right’, but that’s how it works and a lot of people struggle with that; they think that you should only get CGT relief from the assets you’re rolling back, but unless you’re rolling back specific assets, that’s not how it works.”
Mr Forsyth said he’s also concerned that a lot of SMSF trustees started the process of preparing themselves for 30 June too late.
“We always knew that was going to happen. We’re getting requests to do things now which are far too late, such as write advice on what to do,” he said.
“There’s no time [left now], you need to be executing [strategies] now, not writing statements of advice.”
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
