Suncorp Easy Invest Tax Guide. for the year ended 30 June 2011

Transcription

1 Suncorp Easy Invest Tax Guide for the year ended 30 June 2011 A

2 Tax policies and general assumptions This Tax Guide provides information on the tax policies and assumptions used, and the information the Operator has relied upon, to prepare the Tax Report Summary and the Tax Report Detailed in order to determine how amounts received should be treated for taxation purposes. It will help you in the preparation of your income tax return for the year ended 30 June Third Party Access Suncorp Easy Invest clients can grant their accountant, SMSF administrator or other financial representative secure access to view and download reports for their Suncorp Easy Invest account, normally only visible to their adviser. With direct access to account reporting, their financial representative will have the information at their fingertips to complete their client s end of year accounting paperwork. Our dedicated Wrap tax website contains detailed tax information relating to tax reporting including: information explaining tax technical concepts in more detail soft copies of this guide and the Accountants Guide to the Tax Report glossary of terms, and Australian Taxation Office (ATO) links and resources. Should more detailed information be required, the following links may be useful: advisers refer to the Suncorp Easy Invest website accountants macquarie.com.au/wraptax 2 Suncorp Easy Invest is an Investor Directed Portfolio Service operated by Macquarie Investment Management Limited ABN AFSL (MIML). Investments made through Suncorp Easy Invest are not deposits with or other liabilities of Macquarie Bank Limited (MBL) ABN or of any Macquarie Group company, and are subject to investment risk, including possible delays in repayment and loss of income or principal invested. Neither MBL, MIML, nor any other member company of the Macquarie Group guarantees the repayment of capital or the performance or any particular rate of return of the investments purchased through Suncorp Easy Invest. The facilitator Suncorp Life and Superannuation Limited ABN AFSL (Suncorp), promotes the portfolio administration service offered by the Operator. Neither Suncorp, Suncorp Metway Limited ABN , nor any of the Suncorp Group of companies guarantees the repayment of capital or the performance or any particular rate of return of the investments purchased through Suncorp Easy Invest. Investments made through Suncorp Easy Invest are not deposits with, or other liabilities of, any Suncorp Group company and are subject to investment risk, including possible delays in repayment and loss of income or principal invested. Suncorp consents to the inclusion in this Tax Guide of statements about it in the form and context in which those statements appear and has not withdrawn its consent before the date of this Tax Guide. Suncorp takes no responsibility for the issue of this Tax Guide or for any information included in it, other than the statements about Suncorp and Suncorp Group entities. This document has been prepared as a general guide only. This is not personal advice. This Tax Guide has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Therefore, before preparing an income tax return, you should consider the appropriateness and relevance of the Tax Guide, taking into account your specific circumstances. The Operator recommends that the general assumptions and tax policies section are read thoroughly because in some instances the policies applied may not be applicable to your specific circumstances and if this is the case, particular amounts may need to be recalculated using other reports available. The Operator strongly recommends that your income tax return is prepared in conjunction with advice from an accountant or tax adviser. This Tax Guide covers the tax policies and assumptions in which the Operator has relied upon in preparing your Tax Report Summary and Tax Report Detailed but should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional taxation advice.

3 Tax Report Summary The Tax Report Summary provides you with a summary of your taxable position in respect of your account for the year ended 30 June It provides: consolidated tax information required to complete your income tax return references to ATO TaxPacks for individuals, trusts and self managed superannuation funds, and references to the Tax Report Detailed so that you can determine how amounts disclosed in the Tax Report Detailed are used to arrive at the amounts disclosed in the Tax Report Summary. Tax Report Detailed The Tax Report Detailed provides you with a detailed breakdown, on a distribution basis, of all income that you have derived for the year ended 30 June It also contains information about any asset disposals and any expenses that have been incurred throughout the year. The Tax Report Detailed has the following sections: Cash (C) Managed Funds (T) Disposal of Capital Items (R) Excess Assessable Gains (X) Denied Franking Credits (DF), and Fees and Expenses (F). The Tax Report Detailed will always disclose the Cash (C) and Fees and Expenses (F) sections but will only show those other sections of the Report that are relevant to your account. The Tax Report Detailed will therefore not disclose sections where your investments either did not distribute assessable income or were not disposed of during the year. This year you may receive additional supporting materials at the end of your Tax Report. The additional information contains the key assumptions explained in this guide and may also contain explanations for unusual items reported to you. Legislative developments The Taxation of Financial Arrangements (TOFA) regime began on a mandatory basis from 1 July Prior to this date, taxpayers may choose to go into this regime on an elective basis. The Operator has not considered the application of this regime to your account on the assumption that one of the exclusion criteria has been met and you have not elected for TOFA to apply to your account. We recommend you seek independent taxation advice to confirm whether or not this regime applies to your account. In May 2010, the Australian government announced that, to encourage personal savings, it would provide individual investors a 50% tax discount on up to $1,000 of interest income earned on certain savings products. Since then, another announcement was made confirming that the discount will apply from 1 July 2012 and will initially only apply to the first $500 of interest income derived. At the time of writing this Guide, no legislation had been enacted to give effect to this change. As such, this change has had no impact on the generation of your 2011 Tax Report. During the past year, there have been a lot of announced measures impacting the taxation of trusts as well as the Colonial First State (CFS) decision in January The Operator has continued to rely on information provided by product issuers regarding the income flowing through unlisted managed funds on our investment menu. Further, we have not made any determinations as to whether any fund is a fixed trust as defined and hence not precluded the flow through of any franking credits. We recommend you seek independent external advice to confirm whether our treatment is appropriate to your circumstances. The foreign investment fund (FIF) provisions have been repealed and at the time of writing this guide, have not been replaced. It is anticipated that the Foreign Accumulation Fund (FAF) provisions will soon be enacted. If these do become operative prior to 30 June 2011, any income assessable under the FAF provisions will be disclosed as CFC income on your Tax Report Summary & Tax Report Detailed. 1. Cash (C) Cash income reported includes distributions from your Macquarie Wrap Solutions Cash Account (Cash Account) and any interest refunds from margin loans. Cash Account income is included as assessable income on the date the income is declared. Any interest refunds on margin loans are included as assessable income based upon the date of payment of the interest. The amount of interest refunded in respect of your margin loan is the amount provided by your margin lender. Should this not reconcile to information you have received from your margin lender, please contact your margin lender directly. Also disclosed is the amount of any withholding tax deducted where you have not provided a TFN, ABN, an exemption or you are a non-resident. 3

4 Tax policies and general assumptions 2. Managed Fund Income (T) Managed fund income reported may include distributions of: interest dividends capital gains foreign income other income franking credits foreign income tax offsets non-assessable amounts (such as tax deferred, tax free and return of capital amounts), and expenses paid. Income from managed funds is included as assessable income on an accruals (present entitlement) basis. Any credits distributed through managed funds are disclosed separately under the applicable categories of credits. The Net Cash Distribution received has been grossed up to include TFN amounts withheld (if any) and non-resident withholding tax deducted (if any). Distributed capital gains Any capital gains distributed to you by managed funds are disclosed in the Tax Report Detailed on a distribution by distribution basis. The distributable capital gain is doubled and reported as a gross discounted capital gain. The Tax Report Summary undertakes a net capital gains tax (CGT) calculation, which is limited by the assumptions listed in section 3. These amounts are to be used by you to determine your overall CGT position that is to be disclosed in your income tax return at the capital gains item. These amounts are not to be included in the trust distribution section of your income tax return. This is consistent with ATO guidelines (readily available on the ATO website). Note however that there is an ATOID that states that, on a strict interpretation of the current tax law, these distributed capital gain amounts are to not only be included in the CGT section of your income tax return but also in the trust distribution section with an accompanying deduction (equal to the amount of the distributed capital gain) to ensure there is no double taxation. Given this discrepancy, we recommend that you seek independent taxation advice to determine the tax disclosure that is more appropriate to your individual circumstances. Controlled Foreign Companies (CFCs) The Tax Report Summary and Tax Report Detailed report any unrealised income that may accrue in relation to CFC investments as reported by the product issuer. If you have an investment in a CFC, the Operator recommends that you seek independent taxation advice in relation to any specific CFC taxation treatment. Conduit Foreign Income Any conduit foreign income that you have received from assets held in your account has been disclosed as Australian unfranked dividend income in the Tax Report Summary. It is separately disclosed in the Tax Report Detailed. 3. Disposal of Capital Items (R) In calculating capital gains (or losses) for your account, the Operator has made the following assumptions: you are an Australian resident for tax purposes all investments held in your account have been acquired as capital assets, and only investments held within your account have been included in the Tax Report Summary and Tax Report Detailed. The Tax Report Summary and Tax Report Detailed does not take into account: assets which are held outside your account assets that have been included in the Portfolio Valuation Report as below the line assets, such as retail managed investments, and/or any prior year losses or other carried forward balances. Capital gains and losses have been calculated on a First In First Out (FIFO) basis. That is, the first parcel purchased has been deemed to be the first parcel sold. For assets that have been transferred into the Service, the total purchase price, the acquisition dates and the number of units are based on the information supplied to the Operator at the time of the transfer. Tax deferred, tax free and return of capital distribution amounts These components require adjustments to the cost base and/ or reduced cost base (as relevant) of the asset. Any such adjustments have been made as at the accrual date of the distribution. 4

5 Types of capital gains There are three types of capital gains that you may derive. These are: 1. Discounted capital gains These occur when you have held, or are deemed to have held, an asset for at least 12 months. In this case, you are able to apply a discount that reduces the taxable amount of the capital gain. For individuals and trusts, the discount is 50%. For complying self managed superannuation funds, the discount is 33¹ ³ %. Companies are not entitled to any discount. 2. Indexed capital gains These occur when you acquired an asset prior to 21 September 1999, and held it for at least 12 months. The indexation method allows the cost of the asset to be increased by an indexation factor that is based on the CPI movements up to September Where this method is chosen, the discount method cannot apply. 3. Other capital gains These occur when an asset has been held for less than 12 months, and are calculated by simply taking the proceeds from the sale and deducting the cost base of the asset. Note that you may only have a capital gain or loss in respect of an asset that was purchased after 20 September For any assets that you have transferred into your account with an acquisition date prior to 20 September 1985, they will be treated as a pre-cgt asset and no gains or losses will be reported in respect of these assets. Taxable Australian Real Property (TARP) vs Non-Taxable Australian Real Property (Non-TARP) Gains TARP capital gains arise where: an investor has a more than 10% interest (direct or indirect) in an asset, and the total underlying assets related to real property (by way of market value) are more than the total value of the underlying assets not related to real property. Australian residents are assessed on both TARP and non-tarp capital gains they derive during an income year. Non-residents are only assessed and subject to final withholding tax on TARP capital gains they derive during an income year. In addition, intermediaries (ie those entities which are residents for Australian tax purposes but have non-resident investors) may need to use TARP and non-tarp breakdowns to determine their own withholding tax obligations. Where you have disposed of an asset you hold in the Service, the Operator has assumed that you do not hold a greater than 10% interest in that asset and has disclosed the resulting capital gain as a non-tarp capital gain. Where you have received a distribution of a capital gain, the Operator has relied upon the product issuer statement for the classification of TARP and non-tarp capital gains. The amount disclosed on the Tax Report Summary reflects the disclosure provided by the product issuer. The Tax Report Detailed does not separately identify TARP and non-tarp capital gains. Instead, the amounts reported are the combined total of TARP and non-tarp gains distributed. 4. Excess Assessable Capital Gains (X) These arise where the following has taken place: an asset has made payments of tax deferred and/or return of capital amounts these non-assessable payments have reduced the cost base of the asset, and the cost base of the asset has been reduced to zero. Where this has occurred, any further distributions of these non-assessable amounts will give rise to an immediate capital gain at the time the non-assessable distribution is paid or declared depending on the source of the payment. Where the asset is a unit in a managed fund, this type of capital gain is known as an E4 capital gain. Note that you cannot make a loss as a result of an E4 event. Normal discounting rules and indexation may apply to reduce the amount of capital gain. Where the relevant conditions have been met, the Operator has applied the discount method to reduce the amount of the capital gain. An E4 gain will be recognised on an accruals (present entitlement) basis. 5. Denied Franking Credits (DF) The Operator has applied the 45 Day Rule, being the most common of the franking credit anti-avoidance rules, to determine if any franking credits attributed to you within the Tax Report Summary and Tax Report Detailed have been denied. In disclosing the credit amounts that may have been denied under the 45 day rule, the Operator has undertaken broad based calculations having regard to the assumptions as stated below and the limited information regarding your personal circumstances. In applying this rule, the following has been taken into consideration and/or assumed: no consideration has been given to positions that may reduce the overall exposure to an underlying security by more than 30% for a particular distribution all assets are held at risk there are no related payments, and all buys and sells between the dividend declaration date and the ex-dividend date are cum dividend. The amount of credits which has been denied have been disclosed in the Tax Report Summary and in the Denied Franking Credit (DF) section of the Tax Report Detailed. 5

6 Tax policies and general assumptions 6 6. Fees and Expenses (F) Included in expenses on the Tax Report Summary and Tax Report Detailed are: government charges administration fees adviser fees operator fees, and interest paid on margin loans. All fees reported on the Tax Report Summary and Tax Report Detailed include Goods and Services Tax (GST) unless expressly stated otherwise. To the extent that you have claimed a credit for the GST reported on the expenses disclosed, the fees reported may need to be adjusted depending on your individual circumstances. Government charges and Administration fees Government charges and Administration fees have been classified as fully deductible. You may wish to seek independent taxation advice as to the deductibility of these fees and charges. Adviser fees The tax treatment of these fees is determined by the nature of the services provided by the adviser directly to you. As Suncorp has instructed the Operator that the Adviser fees are deductible, the Operator has reported Adviser fees in the Deductible column of the Tax Report Detailed. The Operator has relied on your adviser s instructions and has not considered whether the treatment is correct. You may wish to seek independent taxation advice in relation to the treatment of these fees and discuss the appropriate treatment with your adviser. Establishment fees have been treated as non-deductible. Operator fees Operator fees include contribution and withdrawal fees. The Operator has reported Operator fees in the Unallocated column of the Tax Report Summary and Tax Report Detailed. If you hold your units on capital account, these amounts should be added to the total of the cost base of your units. If you hold your units on revenue account (banks, insurance companies and taxpayers carrying on a business of trading in shares), these amounts may be outright deductible. You may wish to seek independent taxation advice in relation to the treatment of these fees. Interest on margin loans Interest reported on the Tax Report Summary and Tax Report Detailed in respect of margin loans has been provided by the margin lender and may include prepaid interest (where applicable). The Operator has assumed that the amount of interest on your margin loan is fully deductible. This may not be the case depending on your individual circumstances and the Operator strongly recommends that you seek independent taxation advice as to the deductibility of interest on the margin loan. If you have changed your margin lender throughout the year, interest shown on your Tax Report Detailed and Tax Report Summary will only apply to the lender attached to your account as at 30 June Please note that the amount of interest reported is the amount provided to the Operator by your margin lender. Should this, together with any refunded interest amounts as disclosed in the Cash (C) section of your Tax Report Detailed, not reconcile to the information you have received from your margin lender, you should contact your margin lender directly. Where your margin loan is jointly held across two or more Suncorp Easy Invest accounts, please note that the Operator equally splits the margin loan interest across those accounts. The Operator recommends that you seek independent taxation advice in order to assess whether or not this split is correct and make the appropriate amendments where required. 7. No Tax File Number (TFN) If you have chosen not to provide your TFN, ABN or have not notified the Operator of an exemption by the record date of the distribution, TFN withholding tax may be withheld by the Operator for managed investments. If an amount has been withheld, it is disclosed on both the Tax Report Summary and Tax Report Detailed. This amount may be claimed as a credit in your income tax return. 8. Non-Resident Withholding Tax If you are a non-resident, withholding tax may be deducted on certain income received from unlisted managed funds. For unlisted managed funds, the Operator deducts a flat 15% withholding tax against the gross cash distribution received throughout the year and remits this to the ATO. After year end, the Operator performs a reconciliation against all assets held in your account. The Operator does this once all income components of all assets held in your account are known. The reconciliation is performed for all open accounts comparing the amount that was deducted and the amount that should have been deducted. In performing the reconciliation, the correct Double Tax Agreement (DTA) rates for interest and unfranked distributions and 7.5% for TARP capital gains and Australian other income where you live in a country with which Australia has an effective Exchange of Information Agreement. The rate will be 30% where you live in a country where no such agreement has been negotiated. Where too much tax has been deducted throughout the year, a credit is made to your Cash Account. Where not enough tax has been deducted, a debit equal to the amount of the tax shortfall is made from your Cash Account.

7 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd ACN Grosvenor Place 225 George Street Sydney NSW 2000 PO Box N250 Grosvenor Place Sydney NSW 1220 Australia The Directors Macquarie Investment Management Limited 1 Shelley St Sydney NSW 2000 DX: 10307SSE Tel: +61 (0) Fax: +61 (0) June 2011 Dear Directors Independent Taxation Review: Suncorp Easy Invest Tax Guide For the year ended 30 June 2011 We have reviewed the above Tax Guide ( the Tax Guide ) for Macquarie Investment Management Limited ( MIML ) for the year ended 30 June We have conducted an independent taxation review to determine whether, in our opinion, the Tax Guide contains any material misstatements or omissions in relation to taxation matters. This opinion has been prepared for MIML to be satisfied that it has obtained reasonable assurance in relation to the integrity of the Tax Guide having regard to its overall responsibilities and subject to the comments noted below. No responsibility will be accepted for any reliance on the opinion to any other person, or for any purpose other than which it was prepared. Scope of Review Our review of the Tax Guide has been limited to determining that based on the information that has been made available to us, we are not aware of any material statement that is false or misleading with respect to the technical principles as advised by MIML and referred to in the Tax Guide or any material omissions from the Tax Guide. The scope of our review did not extend to a review or testing of the systems, nor a review of the technical principles beyond those disclosed in the Tax Guide. Our review is based on the taxation laws, rulings and administrative practice of the Australian Taxation Office as at the date of this opinion. Statement Based on the review procedures outlined above, we are not aware of any issues that would cause us to believe that the contents of the Tax Guide for the year ended 30 June 2011 contains a material misstatement or omission. Yours sincerely, Adele Watson Director, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited 7

8 If you would like to make an appointment with a Suncorp Financial Planner, call and say Financial Planner at the prompt. BKL0244 SUN 06/11 8