Grasslands under pressure – will agriculture pull through? Rising human populations place enormous stress on grasslands and other resources used for agriculture. Land is taken over for housing, roads, growing crops. Do we want to wipe out the natural environment and grasslands simply to feed an over-populated Australia and...

SMSF service provider onlinesmsfaudit.com.au has launched an automated cloud-based system aimed at reducing audit times and improving quality. According to new services’ founder, Manoj Abichandani onlinesmsfaudit.com.au will allow registered SMSF auditors to conduct high-level audits in half the time it takes using traditional auditing methods. In turn this will...

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is re-examining the rules around in-house asset exemptions contained in the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act. The area of concern for the regulator involves the treatment of investments in a related trust held by an SMSF as a required part of a limited recourse borrowing...

Online access to SMSF data is set to increase sharply, with close to 50 per cent of SMSF accountants interested in offering clients and advisers a web-based solution.The “OneVue/Investment Trends 2013 SMSF Accountant Report” revealed currently one in five SMSF accountants offered their clients and advisers the option to...

Tax legislation passed in 2012 ending the classification of superannuation assets as trading stock and in effect treating them as capital items can be advantageous for some SMSF portfolios, according to an SMSF specialist lawyer. “Going forward, no super funds have trading stock and all assets are on capital...

Chartered accounting firm Crowe Horwath is in the process of assessing the viability of greater reliance on automation to communicate with and service its SMSF clients. The initiative is part of the organisation’s effort to better coordinate its SMSF service delivery across the Crowe Horwath network. “We are looking...

Renting for life? Housing shift requires rethink of renters’ rights By Kate Shaw, University of Melbourne Australia is the world capital for property speculation. Australians play property like Monopoly: buying, selling, demolishing, rebuilding, extending, renovating, always with the promise of appreciation on resale. The contribution to GDP of real...

Engaging in Myanmar: whose interest are we serving? By Jonathan Bogais, University of Sydney Myanmar is the “new frontier” of the Asia-Pacific region. With its large potential markets, abundant natural resources and strategic position, competition for control of the anticipated revenues intensifies pressure on all sides. While economic development...

Screen Daily have released the epitome of studio performance in 2013 – which is topical given The Merkin Group’s newly expanded  footprint in the global tentpole film acquisition and distribution business. Sony’s China box office swells 22% Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI) top brass reported significant year-on-year gains in...

It has been another impressive year for the S&P/ASX 200, with the index returning a total of 17.6 per cent to investors. Returns haven’t been evenly spread across each sector as the broader economy grappled with reduced mining spend and a strong currency, choking export-driven sectors. The materials sector...