ATO SMSF systems creating confusion

The Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA) has criticised the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for listing new self-managed super funds (SMSFs) under a new category of “Registered — status not determined” in the Super Fund Look Up system, claiming it creates the impression that new SMSFs are not compliant.

The ATO created a category of “Registered — status not determined” within the Super Fund Look Up system for newly created SMSFs in January this year, and explained it would indicate they were newly formed funds that have not yet lodged their first annual return.

But in a media briefing at the SPAA conference in Melbourne, SPAA chairman Sharyn Long said that the ATO’s explanatory notes of the new category suggested that these funds would not be compliant with regulation until they lodged their first return.

“The first thing most people who set up an SMSF do is apply to roll over their existing superannuation entitlements out of the large fund — and large funds rely on Super Fund Look Up to determine if the [SMSF] is a compliant fund,” she said.

Larger super funds could refuse to roll over funds into a new SMSF, saying that it wasn’t compliant with regulation, Long said.

The notes suggesting a fund may not yet be compliant were also inconsistent with current regulation, Long said.

When a new SMSF is formed, it is automatically a compliant fund unless it breaches a provision of the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act, she said.

“We have absolutely no concern with the fact that processes are meant to be quite rigorous. It’s just that some of the processes that have been asked for don’t make a lot of sense,” said SPAA chief executive Andrea Slattery.