POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
Trustees warned on tax
Superannuation fund trustees need to pay more attention to taxation or risk undermining their returns, according to an expert from accountancy giant Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC).
PWC partner Marco Feltrin has told a Centre for Investor Education seminar this week that those funds which failed to pay appropriate attention to tax risk would fail to capture any upside benefits and would place their funds at risk of paying more tax and coming under greater scrutiny from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
“No one expects either the trustees of superannuation funds or management to be tax experts, but it is imperative that they have an awareness of tax issues so they can ask the right questions of their service providers and advisers,” he said.
Feltrin said the failure of trustees and management to properly manage their tax risks could have a number of consequences including paying more tax than necessary, paying tax earlier than necessary, failing to optimise after-tax performance and a possible increase in scrutiny from the ATO.
He said as funds increasingly invested overseas, tax issues become more complex, with the result that the ATO was likely to pay greater attention.
“Currently the ATO is undertaking a review of foreign income earned by large superannuation funds, both to increase its knowledge of this complex area and to ensure there is no inappropriate tax leakage,” Feltrin said.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
Recommended for you
Large superannuation accounts may need to find funds outside their accounts or take the extreme step of selling non-liquid assets under the proposed $3 million super tax legislation, according to new analysis from ANU.
Economists have been left scrambling to recalibrate after the Reserve Bank wrong-footed markets on Tuesday, holding the cash rate steady despite widespread expectations of a cut.
A new Roy Morgan report has found retail super funds had the largest increase in customer satisfaction in the last year, but its record-high rating still lags other super categories.
In a sharp rebuke to market expectations, the Reserve Bank held the cash rate steady at 3.85 per cent on Tuesday, defying near-unanimous forecasts of a cut and signalling a more cautious approach to further easing.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom 465 Calder Road Calder
99.46 3 y p.a(%)
2
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
95.46 3 y p.a(%)
3
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
78.55 3 y p.a(%)
4
BetaShares Crypto Innovators ETF
50.39 3 y p.a(%)
5
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
47.50 3 y p.a(%)
