Evidence presentation method crucial to AAT's findings
How investors present evidence to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and how they explain them is critical to how the AAT looks at a case, according to SMH Lawyers partner David Hughes.
Addressing the SMSF Professionals' Association of Australia conference, Hughes quoted a case in which an investor's superannuation payment was delayed in a superannuation clearing house and made its way into the investor super fund at a later date, thereby being subject to a extremely high tax assessment.
If the evidence provided to the AAT had been presented differently, the result of the case may have been different, Hughes said.
Many of the cases that come before the AAT are the result of investors' ignorance, Hughes said.
Investors needed to get advice first, and that was a missing factor in a lot of these AAT cases.
Getting the evidence right without good financial advice and good legal advice was very difficult, he said.
The way evidence is presented is paramount and can win or lose a case with the AAT, Hughes added.
Recommended for you
BT is to launch a new low-cost “Focus” investment menu for its Panorama platform this October, in partnership with Vanguard, seeking to compete with industry superannuation funds.
Net gains of financial advisers have already doubled since the start of FY25, according to this week’s Padua Wealth Data, with momentum gathering pace far faster than the previous financial year.
National advice firm MiQ Private Wealth has appointed a new chief executive to lead the business through a “transformative era” after penning a partnership deal with AZ NGA earlier this month.
WT Financial’s managing director, Keith Cullen, believes the firm’s Hubco model with Merchant Wealth Partners will be a “repeatable growth model” for the business as it scales its adviser numbers.
