The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) appears to have validated claims by the SMSF Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA) that the use of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) to facilitate illegal early release schemes is in decline.
That validation has come in the form of a recent address by ATO assistant commissioner for superannuation Stuart Forsyth, who told a Brisbane forum earlier this month that during 2011/12 the ATO had not identified any new illegal early release schemes.
His comments have come amid SPAA's rejection of claims by industry funds that SMSFs should be removed from the regulatory oversight of the ATO and placed under the jurisdiction of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
However Forsyth said the reduction in illegal early release schemes had been a product of risk assessing newly registered funds, working with the super industry to share intelligence to minimise risks and fraud, and the ATO's member verification system.
The assistant commissioner also revealed this month that, for the first time, the ATO would be running a program focused on the largest SMSFs to check if they were meeting their regulatory and income tax obligations.
He said that in the current financial year the ATO would be analysing the top 200 SMSFs based on total assets and that from that analysis it would be selecting 25 SMSFs for a comprehensive audit.
