Taxing times for trustees?

Christine St Anne: I'm at the SMSF Association's Annual Conference and this time I have managed to grab a quiet room, and today I'm joined by Graeme Colley to talk about some of the key legislative issues for trustees.  Graeme, welcome. smsf auditor melbourne Graeme Colley: Thank you, Christine. St Anne: Now, Graeme, you had mentioned in your presentation some technical issues in particular the concession or contributions into superannuation...

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US consumers increase January borrowing

US consumers increased their borrowing in January at the slowest pace in more than a year with borrowing on credit cards actually declining for the second time in three months. THE Federal Reserve reported on Friday that consumer borrowing expanded $US11.6 billion ($A14.92 billion) in January following a $US17.9 billion gain in December. BAS Preparation services in Australia It was the smallest monthly increase since borrowing rose by...

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GDP growth slows in December quarter

Australian economic growth slowed in the final three months of last year and remains firmly below trend, according to official figures. The Bureau of Statistics says Australia's gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.5 per cent in the December quarter. That took the annual rate GDP growth to 2.5 per cent, down from 2.7 per cent in the prior period. The decline was in line with the consensus view of economists, as the Reserve Bank considers...

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Australian workers overpaid, hard to fire, says US economist

Aussie workers are getting paid too much and take too much annual leave, US economist Bob Baur says. Source: News Limited THE economy is struggling to grow because Australians get too much pay, too much annual leave and are too hard to fire, an American economist says. Bob Baur, chief global economist at Principal Global Investors, said the local labour market was in need of reform if the economy was going to shift from its dependence...

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Qantas Swings Back To H1 Profit

Qantas Airways has swung back to a first-half profit, delivering its best interim performance in four years, as its massive transformation program continues to reap results. In the six months to December 31, Qantas posted a statutory net profit of $203 million, from a loss of $235m a year earlier. On an underlying basis, the national carrier posted a net profit of $367m, a sharp improvement on the $252m loss it posted in the previous corresponding...

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Spending Slowed To Crawl In January

Economy-wide spending has slowed to a crawl but cheap petrol and the recent interest rate cut should hopefully turn that around. Spending rose just 0.2 per cent in January, marking the slowest spending growth since 2012, figures from the Commonwealth Bank on Monday show. Sales growth has been slowing for the past five months, but CommSec chief economist Craig James said consumers should start splashing more cash this year. “With household finances improving following the fall in petrol prices and recent interest rate cut, we can expect...

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Bowen Stumped On Tax-Free Threshold

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen is under fire for not being able to identify the cut-off point for the tax-free threshold. Under repeated questioning during the interview on Sky News’ Richo and Jones program, Mr Bowen was not able to correctly nominate the figure of $18,200. But Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is sticking by his shadow treasurer saying Mr Bowen ‘absolutely’ still has his confidence. ‘Chris knows what he got wrong last night....

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