Our legal team has extensive experience in managing the tax needs of our client base which includes high net worth individuals, high net worth family groups, successful entrepreneurs and the founders of successful start-ups who operate in Australia and globally.

Our approach is to ensure such matters satisfy the scrutiny of any tax or regulatory authority for individuals, trusts, companies or superannuation funds.

Our legal team can provide expert detailed taxation advice regarding:

• Tax residency of individuals, companies or trusts;
• Central management and control requirements for any Australian resident director of a foreign company
• Source of income and capital gains.
• Controlled foreign companies regime, foreign trusts, s99B implications and transferor trust provisions;
• Foreign superannuation funds;
• Expanding business overseas
• Established business with cross-border activities;
• Double taxation treaties
• Unwinding or restructuring of offshore structures;
• Capital gains taxation including small business concessions
• Transfer pricing reviews;
• Revenue authority reviews;

We provide advice on the establishment of Australian complying self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) and/or the establishment of foreign superannuation funds, which are effective vehicles for building wealth with a retirement focus.

Australian superannuation legislation is highly complex, with strict regulations and extreme penalties for breaches. We can guide you through the regulatory maze, by:

• Optimising wealth transfers to SMSFs;
• Transferring retirement benefits from foreign pension funds;
• Assisting SMSFs to borrow for investment purposes;
• Asset purchases within an SMSF;
• Preparation of investment strategies;
• Transitions to retirement;
• Effective management of death benefit payments;
• Assistance for departing Australian individuals to maintain their SMSF.

Our legal team have experience in dealing with simple and complex estates.

Inherited wealth can be a burden to people who don’t have the experience or education to manage it. For business owners, the desire to pass control of the business to a new generation must coincide with the training and education of those future business owners. A failure to plan for these outcomes and prepare the inheritors for the responsibility of wealth and business ownership can cause interfamily disputes, disruption to the business and the squandering of the family wealth.

Facilitated family meetings offer an effective and efficient way for thinking through and making important decisions regarding the impact of family money on individuals, children, the family estate and the family business. Meetings are customised to meet the specific questions and needs of our clients. Ultimately the family meetings sets the foundation to maximise the opportunities of wealth and minimise its potential negative impact on the next generation, the family business and the family legacy.

We encourage you to participate in one of our family meetings to establish a strategy to ensure that your family is prepared to handle their inheritance. The strategies include:

• Helping the family identify, agree and confirm the core values it chooses to live by, recognising that they represent the essential identity of the family by reflecting what it stands for as a family. The values of your family will guide the spending, saving and sharing of wealth
• Enabling all qualified family members to participate as equals so their views, needs and interests can be heard, considered and incorporated as appropriate in the agreed outcomes.
• Helping family members develop a clear vision of where they are going in the short, medium and long term, in relation to their private family and business lives.
• To recognise and celebrate each individual’s and the family’s past achievements and current capabilities, and to use these as a basis for developing a shared family vision for the future.
• Discussing the difference between ownership v stewardship of wealth
• Sharing the parents expectation of the next generation
• Distributions and inheritance: how much, when and what conditions
• Cultivating financial literacy and competency
• Family unity and family connection
• Family philanthropy
• Governance and transition planning of entities in the family group

• In addition to facilitating family meetings, we can help your family:

• Establish a governance structure to formalise management of the family legacy and encourage participation by new generations.
• Create a family bank—an entity dedicated to funding entrepreneurial activities and education of the new generations.
• Plan a transition of control of the family business.
• Establish a perpetual philanthropic fund to benefit causes and charities that you support.

Our experience in will drafting gives us an appreciation of both the importance of a will and the emotions that can arise when making one. Our legal team strives to ensure your wishes are recorded in a clear manner. Broadly, your will captures assets owned in your personal name.

Testamentary trusts are a customised trust created by your will that comes into existence upon your death and meets your family’s needs:

• By giving your spouse or children full control over the distributions of income and capital;
• By separating control of the trust assets from vulnerable beneficiaries (such as minors or the disabled) or beneficiaries with money management issues; • By setting aside funds for a special purpose, such as an education fund, or for philanthropy;
• By limiting the availability of capital assets, so that your legacy does not fall into the hands of creditors or your children’s divorcing spouses.

• They can be an extremely tax-effective way to pass your wealth, as distributions of income to minor children or grandchildren are taxed at normal adult rates, rather than the penalty rates of 47% which otherwise apply.

Due to the variety of ways in which property can be owned, many assets can’t be disposed of on your death by a will and require special consideration and planning. These can include:

• Joint assets (commonly the family home, or joint bank accounts);
• Assets held in trusts;
• Assets owned by a company;
• Superannuation benefits (which are a type of trust asset); and
• Life insurance policies.

We can advise you in relation to these assets and offer a variety of solutions to ensure these assets are distributed according to your wishes.

The period following the death of a relative can be a difficult time for any family. There are many practical considerations such as the protection and transfer of property, the maintenance of a family business. We can manage the orderly transfer of assets, inside and outside of Australia, and control of a family business with absolute efficiency, speed, and accuracy.

An EPA is a legal document where you appoint someone to make either financial or medical decisions for you. Your attorney's decisions have the same legal force as if you had made them yourself. "Enduring" means the power continues in circumstances where you are unable to make these types of decisions for yourself.

Appointing a person to make decisions in the event you lose mental capacity - is an important and personal decision that is often overlooked. Illness or a debilitating accident can occur at any time, but by having enduring powers of attorney in place, means your family members can take control of your affairs without involving external parties or the legal system.

If you lose mental capacity, having enduring powers of attorney can ensure that:

• Self-managed superannuation funds remain compliant with regulations.
• Affairs of your companies or family business can be continued without delay. Assets can be liquidated for urgent medical payments or increased income needs.
• Your family members can communicate on your behalf with your professional advisers and the ATO.

For our permanent clients and as part of our holistic service offering, we have an internal accounting and tax agent team that can assist with all your accounting, compliance and tax filings obligations.

Our Accounting services include:

• Financial statement preparation to satisfy local or international standards;
• Business activity statements (BAS) and Instalment Activity Statements (IAS) preparation and lodgement;
• Payroll deduction calculations;
• Income tax return preparation and lodgement;
• Corporate registered office and ASIC agent;
• GST reviews;
• FBT returns; and
• Self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) compliance.