As many of you will be aware, we have updated our Intensive program over the last few weeks to include some initial comments on Bamford.
The Intensives have fully booked out and we are therefore also putting on some Wednesday Night Forums shortly which will focus exclusively on Bamford and the unpaid present entitlement ruling from the end of last year.
One very practical issue that has been raised regularly over the last few weeks has been in relation to trust deeds. In this week’s post, I thought I would list out the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions in this regard.
1. Are View Legal deeds 'Bamford compliant' – every trust deed provided by View Legal is Bamford compliant.
2. Are trust deeds from other providers Bamford compliant – this is an issue that will need to be assessed on a case by case basis. Certainly the older the deed, the less likely it is to be compliant. There are also a number of non tax specialist deed providers who have not traditionally focused on some of the critical issues raised in Bamford.
3. Should we be looking to do wholesale updates of all trust deeds in our client base (similar to the recent super deed updates completed) – subject to the exact approach the ATO adopts in the decision impact statement that is due to be released shortly, we believe there is likely to be some benefit in at least conducting a full review of all deeds.
4. Are there standard distribution minutes available – as many of you will be aware, we have always been conservative in our approach to distribution minutes and strongly recommend that every trustee should independently consider both the trust deed and the exact nature of distributions on a year on year basis (in other words, not use a 'standard' minute).
Certainly given the confirmation of the proportionate approach, the crafting of minutes so that (for example) infant beneficiaries get a set dollar amount and then the balance goes in certain percentages will rarely (if ever) be appropriate.
We are already working with a number of accounting practices to develop an approach that suits the risk profiles of their clients.
Until next week.
Matthew Burgess
