At the launch of the JPMorgan Deloitte 2006 General Insurance Industry Survey, Shane Fitzgerald, Senior Insurance Analyst at JPMorgan said, “The current levels of profitability are extremely high.  Any moderation in profitability that may occur would be coming off a very high base.  And any fall in profitability is still likely to see the industry...

“Employers and employees have been waiting anxiously for details on the effective start date for the application of the new rules, as the tax consequences are likely to be significant,” Mr Randall said.

“Under the current rules, an employee could roll over an employer termination payment to a superannuation fund (or similar entity), and have the superannuation fund pay tax on the roll-over at 15 per cent, and so...

“Detail in the legislation is contrary to indications in the publications released by Treasury in May and September this year,” Mr Randall said.

“Employer contributions up to the age based limits are generally deductible, with the amount of contribution in excess of those limits being non-deductible to the employer.

“Before the...

“Most notably, there is no change to the maximum net asset threshold which currently stands at $5 million,” Mr Masters said.

“This threshold precludes any small business that has net asset above $5 million, including entities connect with the entity and affiliates, from using the small business CGT provisions.

“Initially the May Budget indicated this would be increased to $6million, however it is missing from the Bill which is disappointing.

“Even an increase of $1 million...

However, the amount of funds raised by IPOs will almost halve from $15.2 billion in 2005 to $8.5 billion (excluding T3).

Deloitte Corporate Finance Partner, Steve Woosnam, said the drop in value of IPOs reflected a number of factors.

“Last year’s total was boosted by large infrastructure and listed investment company floats, which have been fewer in number in the past 12 months,” he said.  “The drop in value also reflects a decline...

More than 50 companies participating in the joint study, The Reality of Innovation Unzipped, defined innovation as ‘the clever use of new ideas and ways of doing things in order to add business value and deliver hard targets and specific outcomes’.

The study indicated that it was  not the supply of creative and innovative ideas that was at question – this is a given in a nation of early adopters and technology integrators. Participants believed the challenge was to...

The importance of the product has grown over the past 12 months to the extent that more than 50% of those surveyed believe that reverse mortgages will be an important financial planning tool within 12-24 months. 

“This is a significant change to last year when many financial planning dealer groups were either unaware of the product or thought it would take more than three...

Senator Coonan said the Deloitte Fast 50 results were the strongest ever recorded and reflected the resurgence of the Australian technology industry as leaders in the Asia Pacific region.

“This year companies ranked in the Fast 50 recorded a minimum growth level of 132%,” Senator Coonan said.

Deloitte Technology Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Partner, Julia...