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Estate planning in Australia

  • 12 月 8, 2024

Home » 澳洲法律解读 » 遗嘱 » Trusts » Estate planning in Australia

Key principles of estate planning in Australia

The main purpose of estate planning in Australia are to maximise lifetime wealth and income, i.e. the deceased estate. It is also to protect assets from creditors and relatives. This can often be through creating and maintaining trusts.

Creation of discretionary trusts

Discretionary trusts in Australia are created during someone’s lifetime. They usually involve 3-4 parties specifically where a “settlor” transfers the trust property to a “trustee (individual but usually company)” to then hold on trust for “beneficiaries.” The trust deed which governs the trust sets the rules of how the trust fund is administered. Following the creation of Trust, the property will be transferred or lent to the Trust. The trustee or trustee director will control the trusts’ activities and can be removed by the “appointer” where they appoint a new trustee. The settlor does not play a future role in the trust.

The trustee then becomes the legal owner of the trust property and liabilities. If the trustee is a company rather than an individual, its shareholders are not liable for the trust’s debts but the directors may be liable pursuant to the Corporations Act for breach of their director duties.  In a discretionary trust, the trustee decides the distribution amounts of income and capital to beneficiaries. 

Beneficiaries do not have a role or a proprietary interest in the trust fund. Beneficiaries may have a contingent interest in the trust fund where trustee distributes to other persons. 

Taxation benefits of Discretionary Trusts

There are multiple tax benefits of using discretionary trusts in Australia. There are taxation rules which apply to trust income, distributions and trust loans. 

  1. Distribute trust income to a range of beneficiaries- trust income can be distributed to particular family members or companies controlled by a family to minimise the tax rate payable on the trust income. In this respect, the Trustee can distribute among a range of beneficiaries and exploit low marginal rates.  
  2. Trustees can lend money to beneficiaries- care should be taken to distributions to shareholders who may be deemed to receive a dividend from the company to the borrower.
  3. Discretionary trusts which have other asset holding vehicles can result in capital gains on disposals of a trust asset be subject to only one layer of taxation. This is not the case for companies that sell assets where profit can be taxed in the shareholder when the exempt portion is distributed.  

In addition, trust assets are not included in the beneficiary’s assets and can be transferred to discretionary trust. For example, to qualify for the age pension while retaining control over assets, the person can transfer assets to a discretionary trust where that person’s children and/or grandchildren are beneficiaries where the trustee controls it. Care must be taken to avoid breaching anti-avoidance tax provisions. 

Testamentary Trusts

These are trusts which are created under a Will so that assets are not dissipated after their death. In this respect, ordinary marginal tax rates apply to distributions to children under 18 to avoid normal discretionary trust marginal rates or estate assets may be transferred to beneficiaries tax free. There are various tests such as surviving spouse and assets tests. Expert advice should be sought before proceeding. In this respect, trust assets do not pass under the Will and control of assets passes with control of trustee. Moreover, the beneficiaries do not have an interest in the trust fund and the assets are not directly available to the applicant under probate laws. It is therefore to seek expert legal advice from our estate planning lawyers as clauses should be inserted to suit your particular needs. For example, one important thing to include in the trust deed is for a change of appointor or ownership of trustee.

Superannuation funds

Superannuation funds are dealt with separately to a Will. The superannuation fund has assets which are subject to binding death benefit nominations where you nominate particular individuals or classes of persons who should receive the funds when you pass away. This nomination should be updated every 3 years. 

 

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