Coming up in May is the 2020 Barossa Online - SME Tax Technical, a premier webinar event for tax professionals in the SME space. Michael Flynn QC, one of Australia’s leading tax and trust barristers and keynote speaker, will be opening the webinar with a session on ‘Decoding trust income.’

He will take delegates through the often complex pathway that the trustee and its advisers must navigate, in order to distribute the trust income to achieve the desired tax outcomes and attributes for the intended beneficiaries. He'll also share his experience and practical insight into:

• Ongoing discrepancies between trust income and tax net income and how the courts have been dealing with the issues post Bamford ie Greenhatch, Forrest
• How the Courts have defined “income of a trust estate” including latest case law developments
• Income equalisation clauses, income re-characterisation clauses and other important trust powers
• Matters to consider when drafting trustee resolutions
• Default beneficiaries and vesting

We talked with Michael in the lead up to the event and asked him more about his session.

“Attendees can expect to hear a comprehensive update on the issues that arise in distributing taxable income to beneficiaries of discretionary trusts” he explains.

“I will be discussing alternative approaches to defining trust income and streaming different types of income to specified beneficiaries.”

Michael hopes to give delegates practical outcomes for the issues he will cover.

“Most accountants deal with discretionary trusts on a daily basis.  My session will equip them with the tools they need to ensure that their clients who control discretionary trusts can achieve their desired tax outcomes.”

Trust income – What are the blind spots?

We asked Michael about the areas that are often missed by tax practitioners and how they can overcome this.

“Some of the blind spots in this area include failing to understand the relationship between the trust income and the trust’s taxable income, and the obstacles in the way of distributing dollar amounts of taxable income to particular beneficiaries” explains Michael.

Michael Flynn QC CTA (Life), has been a member of the Tax Institute for over 30 years and was President of The Tax Institute in 2014. He is the author, with James Kessler, QC, of Drafting Trusts and Will Trusts in Australia (2nd edition, 2017). Michael has appeared in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the Federal Court and the High Court in taxation cases.

When Michael’s not knee deep in tax he loves spending most of his time chasing his 8-year-old around the house or outdoors. 

Don’t miss out the opportunity to access key SME content delivered by leading practitioners. This series of webinars will give practical, technical insight into matters critical to tax professionals who predominantly practice in the SME space. Consume the content, then interact in live Q&A's and video chat sessions with the speakers and other delegates to further connect and explore the issues that matter.

Find out more about the rest of the program on our website and register now to secure your spot.