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1 week ago | 
afr.com | Michelle Bowes
Skip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footerHelp using this website - Accessibility statementFarms were the surprise top performer of the Australian property market over the past 20 years, powered by high commodity prices, favourable weather conditions and – until recently – low interest rates, a new report has found.
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1 week ago | 
afr.com | Michelle Bowes
What do Homebush, Hawthorn South and Peppermint Grove have in common? They’re all desirable capital city suburbs where first home buyers are priced out of the market – unless they choose an apartment over a house.
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2 weeks ago | 
afr.com | Michelle Bowes
The High Court has granted the Tax Office an appeal in a dispute over the taxation of family trusts, placing a cloud over taxpayers’ ability to claim around $1 billion in refunds. In April this year, the full bench of the Federal Court unanimously ruled in favour of Melbourne accountant Steven Bendel, who maintained that certain payments owed by a trust to a corporate beneficiary should not be treated as loans for the purposes of Division 7A of the Tax Act, contrary to the ATO’s long-held view.
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2 weeks ago | 
afr.com | Michelle Bowes
Jun 10, 2025 – 5.00am or Subscribe to save articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? If, like a company director who was nabbed by the Tax Office, you’re thinking about claiming your $7000 coffee machine or treadmill as a work-from-home expense in your tax return, think again. Ditto for claiming expenses related to the rental of a second property if you’ve made no attempt to rent the property out.
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3 weeks ago | 
afr.com | Michelle Bowes
Jun 6, 2025 – 4.39pm or Subscribe to save articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? The superannuation industry has rubbished Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ claim that the government consulted openly about reforming the sector before launching its plan to raise the tax rate on super balances above $3 million.
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3 weeks ago | 
afr.com | Joanna Mather |Michelle Bowes
Jun 6, 2025 – 1.48pm or Subscribe to save articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Labor’s $3 million superannuation tax is set to permanently alter the complexion of self-managed superannuation funds because trustees and their advisers may be tempted to stack them full of low-growth, dividend-producing assets.
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4 weeks ago | 
afr.com | Michelle Bowes
May 30, 2025 – 7.22pm or Subscribe to save articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? The Tax Office has put the nation’s wealthiest families on notice that it is watching closely for any restructuring of their assets or specious strategies to avoid Labor’s proposed tax on superannuation balances above $3 million.
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4 weeks ago | 
afr.com | Michelle Bowes |Joanna Mather
May 30, 2025 – 5.21pm or Subscribe to save articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? At a press conference in early 2023, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced their plans to impose a higher tax rate on the earnings of superannuation balances above $3 million. The measure would help pay down the $1 trillion debt inherited from the previous government, Albanese said.
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1 month ago | 
afr.com | Michelle Bowes
May 29, 2025 – 5.40pm or Subscribe to save articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Auditors are bracing for a wave of dodgy asset valuations under Labor’s superannuation tax, warning that self-managed superannuation funds are already trying to manipulate what they own to avoid or limit their exposure to the new impost.
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1 month ago | 
afr.com | Michelle Bowes
May 29, 2025 – 5.00am or Subscribe to save articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Like many Baby Boomers, Peter and Lesley Boyle had trodden the well-worn path of investing in residential property during their wealth accumulation years.
