Happy New Year and some Key legislative changes for 2018 and beyond

Happy New year. It’s hard to believe we are mid-way through January already! We hope you had a lovely time over the festive season and we look forward to seeing you in 2018 to see what you have planned for this year. There are some Key changes for 2018 and beyond with a range of important super, tax and social security changes that have been legislated or proposed to take effect in 2018 and beyond that could provide some opportunities for some of you.

Some of these opportunities include the “downsizer contributions”  where from 1 July 2018, those aged 65 or over are able to make non-concessional contributions of up to $300,000 (per person) to their superannuation from proceeds of selling their main residence.

Catch-up concessional contributions are also available to individuals with super balances less than $500,000 on 30 June of the prior financial year. Access to a higher annual cap will be available where you can contribute your remaining unused concessional contribution cap on a rolling basis for a period of 5 years for those applicable.

In this first newsletter for the year we have included the January market update where December saw positive economic news for the major developed markets, with rising levels of business sentiment and favourable employment conditions providing a solid foundation for growth.

An article about preparing for your family’s future is also included. As things change it is very important to decide what will happen to your assets when you die and how you give instructions to your family about your legal and medical preferences should you fall ill or lose the capacity to make those decisions yourself. The article highlights what records should be kept, however, as our digital footprint grows it is also important to list all of your online accounts such as social media, emails and banking accounts.

On a lighter note, some of you may be considering a ‘gap year’ as a number of parents are taking a year out to give their children a different kind of education- by travelling the world. This article includes some ideas on how to make your house pay for your family gap year or your own gap year.

As always, please give me a call if you have any specific questions about any of this content and we look forward to catching up with you all this year.

Regards,

Charmaine