Below is a sheet which shows the benefit of having superannuation equalisation provisions in a Will if there is at least one financial dependent sharing equally in an estate, e.g. no spouse, two children out working and one child at school.
If the superannuation and other assets are split equally, such as in the first example, the ATO gets $30,000.00 – see the pink column.
If the school child gets all of the superannuation and the other two children get the bulk of the rest of the estate, they will all get the same amount, and the ATO will get nothing.
Unfortunately, once there are no financial dependants the ATO gets $45,000.00.
In the second example, if you want the kids to receive equal amounts, some tax will have to be paid, but a lot less than $30,000.00.
As you might expect, putting all that into words is not trivial, so you do not see these provisions in a lot of Wills, but as you can see, the benefits can make it more than worthwhile.
If you found this article helpful, please consider providing a Google Review and/or like us on LinkedIn. For help and advice on tax-effective wills, see Michael Paterson & Associates (08) 9443 5383