Handbook

This course aims to equip you with a comprehensive understanding of trust taxation, enhancing your proficiency in navigating the Australian tax environment and your ability to advise on complex trust issues or manage compliance and tax risk.

This course delves into the complex role that trusts play within the Australian financial landscape, serving as pivotal instruments for managing investment assets, running businesses, protecting and transferring family wealth, and facilitating income splitting.

The course covers the nuances of various trust structures, including fixed public trusts—now broadly recognized as public unit trusts or collective investment vehicles—and the significant presence of trusts in superannuation funds. Discretionary trusts widely used for family businesses will be considered in some depth.

Unlike distinct legal entities, trusts are not directly taxed; taxation obligations primarily fall to the beneficiaries, otherwise to the trustee. This curriculum is designed to unravel the intricacies of when the general taxation rule for trusts applies and when it is overridden by exceptions. Leading cases and ‘cutting edge’ issues will be explored.

The course is essential for those of you seeking to deepen or refine your grasp of the Australian tax system, offering a structured exploration through five modules: an introduction to, and overview of, trust law relevant to trust taxation, taxation of trust net income, the application of the CGT provisions to trusts, trust loss measures and family trust elections, and general anti-avoidance along with other integrity measures.