Many tax problems concerning trusts are really problems with trusts. Justice Spender is the most senior judge in the Federal cCourt and in his 22 years has heard numerous trust cases including many dealing with tax issues and he has seen the trusts mistakes made that shouldn’t have been made. This paper gives some practical guidance so we, as tax practitioners can avoid mistakes when dealing with trusts:
- understanding and correctly using trustee’s powers and duties
- getting terms of distributions right
- getting trust records right
- nasty surprises when tax liability increased by ATO
- present entitlement (real or deemed) what does it really mean for tax purposes in sec 95(1).