BGL believes the 2017/2018 Commonwealth Budget has little good news for SMSF trustees and administrators.
“After the horrendous 2016/17 Commonwealth Budget changes, I suppose we should be relieved” says BGL Managing Director Ron Lesh, “but our clients should not be under the misapprehension this budget is actually good for SMSFs”.
“I suppose we should be happy the Government did not ban borrowing in SMSFs as recently announced by the Labor Party or increased the tax rate on super” said Lesh “but the First Home Super Saver Scheme and the Downsizing exemption to superannuation caps are just further complications to an already ridiculously complicated system”
“While these changes sound good in theory, they are going to make administration harder again for our clients who are already struggling with last year’s changes” added Lesh “and there has been very little consideration so far in the SMSF community on how the new bank levy will increase the cost of banking for SMSFs as well as reducing dividends”.
“The banks are already telling us someone has to pay for this levy – and we know this will either be bank customers, bank employees or bank shareholders“ noted Lesh “and we can be pretty sure the banks will go down the path of least resistance”
“The budget again highlights why it is becoming more and more important for SMSF administrators to move to the cloud” declared Lesh. “This year’s budget changes will again require administrators to have more information for their clients and provide more reporting to the ATO. It is really no longer a matter of when – we are past the when – those that have not moved or are not moving to the cloud are simply falling further and further behind.”
BGL’s Simple Fund 360 is the most technically advanced and most widely used cloud based SMSF administration solution in Australia, with over 2,300 firms representing over 100,000 funds.
