China’s equivalent of the Nasdaq stock exchange is failing to attract some of the country’s most innovative companies. ChiNext was supposed to anchor local high-tech businesses on home soil with a secure source of funding, but foreign investors have proven to be stuck in their ways. It has been...

Rumblings of discontent from leaders of emerging market economies around the middle of last year when it looked as though the US was about to commence tapering quantitative easing. These rumblings are likely to get a whole lot louder this time around though, as the impact of US policy...

Term sheets, offer letters, letters of intent, heads of agreement and preliminary agreements by any other name have become a staple part of modern M&A negotiations.  However, recent developments in the law surrounding pre-contractual negotiations highlight the risk that the parties’ conduct during pre-contractual negotiations can override the express...

Australia’s box office gross for 2013 was $965,254,265 (A$1,099,615,801), 2.3% less than 2012 reported Sandy George in Screen Australia today Notably – The top 10 films of the year contributed 27% of this figure, which was unveiled by the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA). And- Three of...

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR.   Year of the Horse. 2014 is the year of the Wood Horse. Unlike the year of the Water Snake in 2013 foretelling diplomacy and planning, the year of the Wood Horse is about decisive actions and fast victories. Be certain of your choice, as once...

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...