@mstrump

There are a couple of different trust structures that you could use, a “unit trust” and a “discretionary trust” (or family trust). Without more information about your circumstances the following information is predicated upon the latter (which is suitable for tax optimisation within a family structure). The “discretionary trust” allows for income earned within the trust to be allocated to nominated beneficiaries at the discretion of the trustee. Thus if your spouse, who is a beneficiary is on a lower marginal tax rate you can stream income and realise a tax saving.

Some things to bear in mind:
– Any child under 18 who is a beneficiary under the trust will have any distributed income taxed prohibitively at the top marginal rate
– If you are the only beneficiary you cannot also be the trustee, however you can incorporate a Pty Ltd company of which you are sole director to act as trustee
– You will need a settlor to create the trust with a token amount (e.g. $10) and this should ideally be your accountant, lawyer or some other unrelated party (it cannot be a beneficiary). Once the trust is settled the settlor has no further rights or obligations.

tysmeister

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by  tysmeister.
• This reply was modified 10 years ago by  tysmeister.