Estate and succession planning.

The accounting and tax side. We work alongside your solicitor on wills and letters of wishes, and cover the capital gains tax and GST that arise on estates, family business succession and handover structures, and the administration of deceased estates.

Usually two kinds. A date of death return covers the person's own income from the start of the income year up to the day they died. Income the estate earns after that is treated separately from the deceased person's income and is reported in a trust tax return for the estate. We prepare both and coordinate with the solicitor acting on the estate, so the two are not confused with each other.

Three income years. When the first trust tax return is lodged, a deceased estate can apply for a concessional rate of tax that is the same as the individual income tax rates, with the benefit of the full tax-free threshold, and the ATO applies it for the first three income years of the estate. That period cannot be extended. After it ends, a trustee assessed on the net income of a trust is normally taxed at the top marginal rate, so an estate left part-administered for years can cost considerably more than the same estate wound up on time. Deceased estates also get no low-income tax offset, and no Medicare levy is payable.

Generally there are no capital gains tax consequences at the moment a beneficiary inherits an asset. The tax question arrives later: when the beneficiary sells or otherwise disposes of it, a CGT event can happen unless an exemption applies, and the cost base is worked out under rules that turn on when the deceased acquired the asset. The sale, not the inheritance, is usually the moment worth planning for.

An inherited dwelling that was the deceased's main residence and was not being used to produce income can be fully exempt from CGT if it is disposed of within two years of the death. The detail that catches people is that the contract has to settle within the two years, not merely be signed, so a sale started late in the second year can miss it. Extensions past two years are available only in limited circumstances, so the timing is better decided early than discovered afterwards.

Not automatically. Super is paid under the fund's rules, to a dependant or to your legal personal representative, and it follows your will only where it is directed to your estate. The tax then turns on who receives it, and for tax purposes a child over 18 counts as a dependant only if they were financially dependent on the deceased. An adult child is therefore often a non-dependant, and the taxable component is taxed in their hands. We advise on that tax treatment, and work alongside appropriately licensed financial advisers where the nomination itself needs advice.

We help plan the handover structure and its timing so the business can pass to the next generation or to a buyer without an avoidable tax cost or a scramble. That sits alongside the legal documents your solicitor prepares, with each side doing the part it should.

Yes. We handle the accounting and tax obligations of a deceased estate, including the capital gains and GST consequences, and coordinate with the solicitor acting on the estate.