Unfortunately you do not currently qualify as you have not made any personal after-tax contributions. As your total assessable income is less than the lower qualifying threshold of $28,980 you will be eligible for the maximum co-contribution amount if you make a personal after-tax contribution of $1,000.

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From 1 July 2007, the Government co-contribution has been extended to include the self employed, provided they meet the eligibility criteria. One requirement (amongst other things, such as income limits) is that you earn at least 10% of your income from employment or business income.

Unfortunately, you cannot add any further money to superannuation pension once it has begun. You could stop the existing superannuation pension and begin a new one and combine the existing superannuation pension funds with the additional superannuation contributions. Alternatively, you may simply wish to continue the existing superannuation pension and withdraw the extra contributions made to your superannuation fund, once you finish working, as a lump sum. If you are over 60 when you do this, you will not pay any tax on the withdrawal from your superannuation fund.

Travel costs that relate directly to the management of the investment property are tax-deductible in the year they are incurred. Therefore if you are managing the property or conducting the annual inspection on your visit then this may entitle you to claim at least a portion of the travel costs as a tax deduction. However, there is a limit as to how many trips you can claim. You will need to speak to your accountant to get further details.

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From 1 July 2007, all taced superannuation benefits will be tax-free to you whether you withdraw the benefits as a lump sum or as an income stream.

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If you are thinking of making large contributions into your superannuation fund, you should be aware of the rules relating to contribution caps (or limits) on certain contributions that you/your employer can make.

The limits are different depending on whether the contributions are taxable (generally meaning a tax deduction is claimed) or non-taxable (generally meaning that the contributions have not been claimed as a tax-deduction and come from post tax income). These are known as concessional and non-concessional contributions and the rules from 1 July 2007 are as follows:

Concessional Contributions

YES, members in the Superannuation and Roll-overs Division of the Plan may apply to the Trustee to 'split' 'eligible contributions' with an 'eligible spouse'.
Contribution splitting applies to eligible contributions made within each financial year. The ability to split contributions is subject to any legislative requirements and conditions imposed by the Trustee. The Trustee reserves the right to change any conditions in relation to the contributions splitting.

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An 'eligible spouse' of a Member is the Member's spouse (including de-facto spouse, but not including same sex partners).

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Contributions may be split on the following basis:

• 85% of Taxed Contributions, provided this is not more than the concessional contributions cap of $50,000 (0r $100,000 if you are over 50 in the period up to 30 June 2012;

Taxed Contributions are generally:

• contributions paid by an employer;
• personal contributions for which an income tax deduction has been claimed;
• superannuation holding accounts special account amounts transferred to superannuation accounts by the Tax office on or after 1 January 2006; and
• allocated surplus contribution amounts.

If you are eligible to claim a tax deduction for personal contributions you make, please note you will not be able to claim a tax deduction where a contribution split has been made in respect of those contributions.

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The following contributions are not splittable:

• Personal after-tax (ie non-concessional) contributions;*
• If your benefit is subject to a family law payment split;
• The relevant contributions have been transferred or rolled over to a superannuation fund (this includes overseas superannuation benefits);
• The relevant contributions have already been subject to an application to contribution split;
• The relevant contributions were made to a defined benefit plan;
• At the date your application to split contributions is received by the Trustee your 'eligible spouse' is 65 years or older, or is aged between their relevant preservation age and 65 years, and is retired.

* Prior to 5 April 2007, personal after-tax contributions (known as undeducted contributions) were able to be split. Any personal after-tax contributions made after this date can no longer be split.

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It is common industry practice for net capital gains to only be distributed as part of the 30 June distribution each year. For all other distributions during the financial year, only interest and dividend income is distributed. This is why the 30 June distribution is usually the largest distribution for the financial year.

During the financial year, any net realised capital gains received by the fund are built into the unit price until such time that they are distributed to clients.

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How is a unit price calculated?

Each day, the unit price is calculated by taking the net market value of the assets of the investment option, and dividing it by the number of units on issue within that investment option.

Example 1

For example, if the net market value of assets for an investment option was $5,612,254 and the number of units on issue were 4,875,214, the unit price would be calculated as follows:

$5,612,254/4,875,214 = $1.1512

What is included within the net market value?

• Income received from the underlying investments, but not yet distributed to clients.
• Net realised capital gains received from the underlying investments, but not yet distributed to clients.
• The value of the underlying investments.
• 
  A deduction for the management fee charged for the investment option.
  

Why does a unit price drop immediately after a distribution?

As the unit price during a distribution period includes any accrued income and net capital gains that have been received but not yet paid out, when they are paid out at the end of a distribution period, this will have an immediate impact on the unit price.

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Example 2

Using the values in Example 1 above, where the net market value of assets was $5,612,254, we will look at the impact on the unit price if a distribution amount of $456,897 was paid to unit holders. For simplicity, we will assume that the market returned 0% for the first day of the next distribution period. The unit price for the first day of the distribution period would be calculated as follows:

($5,612,254 - $456,897)/4,875,214 = $1.0575

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Example 3

Another way of looking at this is to see what the distribution amount of $456,897 equates to as a cents per unit figure.

$456,897/4,875,214 x 100 = 9.3718 cents per unit

If you take the unit price for the last day of the distribution period (i.e. $1.1512) and subtract from it the cents per unit figure (i.e. 9.3718), you will obtain a figure of $1.0575. As you can see, this unit price is the same as that calculated in Example 2.

$1.1512 - $0.093718 = $1.0575

Consequently, you can now hopefully see that the unit price for the first day of the new distribution period is calculated as follows:

Unit price for the last day of the previous distribution period; less
The amount distributed for that distribution period, i.e. the cents per unit; plus
Any market movements on the first day of the new distribution period

In the above worked examples, we assumed a 0% market movement for simplicity.

The unit price for the first day of the new distribution period will be lower than that for the last day of the previous distribution period where the market movements for the first day of the new distribution period are less than the amount being distributed.

Conversely, the unit price for the first day of the new distribution period will be higher than that for the last day of the previous distribution period where the market movements for the first day of the new distribution period is greater than the amount being distributed.

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Example 4

The cash distribution amount received by the client (which they may then elect to reinvest) is calculated using the following formula:

(Closing unit balance at the end of the distribution period) x (Cents per unit) / 100 = Cash distribution amount

Therefore, for a client with 9,735.1245 units at the end of a distribution period, the cash distribution amount that they would receive, based on a cents per unit amount of 9.3718 would be:

9,735.1245 x 9.3718 / 100 = $912.36

The only instances where a client would not receive the cash distribution amount as calculated above, would be where they were subject to withholding tax on their distribution payment, i.e. TFN withholding, non-resident withholding or under 18 withholding.

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The “net earnings” and “return on investment” calculations that appear on client statements are calculated as follows:

Net earnings / return on investment = Closing Balance - Opening Balance - Inflows + Outflows

In terms of the above formula, transactions considered “inflows” are:

• Deposits / Investments
• Switch In
• Transfer In (ClearView Managed Investments only)
• Transmission In (ClearView Managed Investments only)
• Distributions Reinvested (ClearView Managed Investments only)

In terms of the above formula, transactions considered “outflows” are:

• Redemptions
• Switch Out
• Transfer Out (ClearView Managed Investments only)
• Transmission Out (ClearView Managed Investments only)
• Distributions Paid (ClearView Managed Investments only)
• Pension Payment (ClearView Pension Plan only)

Special Rules For The ClearView Managed Investments

1. Distributions paid with an effective date equal to the Closing Balance date are excluded from the calculation, as this amount is already built into the Closing Balance amount. For example, if the Closing Balance on the statement was as at 30 June 2007, any distributions effective 30 June 2007 would be excluded.
2. Distributions paid with an effective date equal to the ‘Opening Balance less one day’ are included in the calculation. This is because these amounts were excluded in the calculation for the previous period. As this distribution would not appear on the statement showing the ‘return on investment’ amount, this may prove confusing for investors trying to calculate the figure shown. For example, if the Opening Balance on the statement was as at 1 July 2006, then any distributions effective 30 June 2006 need to be treated as an outflow.

Example of the "net earnings" calculation

NB. The net earnings calculation applies to clients in the ClearView Pension Plan, ClearView Superannuation and Roll-overs, ClearView Rollover Bond and ClearView Savings Bond products.

Based on the above, the "net earnings" is calculated as follows:

Net earnings = B - A - (C + D) + (E + F)

Net earnings = $30,000 - $10,000 - ($15,000 + $500) + ($3,000 + $500)

= $8,000

Example of the "return on investment" calculation

NB. The return on investment calculation applies to clients in the ClearView Managed Investments only.

Based on the above, the "return on investment" (ROI) is calculated as follows:

ROI = B - A - (C + E + G + I + K) + (M + D + F + H + J)

ROI = $45,000 - $20,000 - ($15,000 + $2,500 + $150 + $220 + $404) + ($3,000 + $2,500 + $150 + $220 + $404)

= $13,000

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