SMSFs should pull their weight on regulation
Yet another major superannuation organisation has called for self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) to be made to better pull their weight in terms of footing the cost of financial services regulation.
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has added its voice to that of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) in telling the Federal Treasury that SMSFs have been a beneficiary of the implementation of SuperStream and should foot some of the costs.
An ASFA submission commenting on the level of proposed financial services levies for 2016/17 also argued that employers had been beneficiaries of SuperStream and should also be made to carry some of the costs.
However it was on the question of self-managed funds that it seems likely that the two big super organisations will clash with the SMSF lobby, with ASFA arguing that SMSFs would benefit from the SuperStream initiatives through more efficient rollover processes from other funds and also more efficient mechanisms for receiving contributions from employers who did not have a direct connection with the SMSF trustees.
"Despite this, SMSFs have not contributed toward the Australian Taxation Office's (ATO's) cost of implementing SuperStream in the same manner as Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)-regulated funds," the submission said.
It said ASFA considered that the levy amount recovered from APRA-regulated funds should relate to the SuperStream activity directly attributable to APRA-regulated funds in circumstances where the implementation of SuperStream applied across the whole system, including the SMSF sector.
"We can see no reason why the SMSF levy legislation cannot be amended to allow a levy to be applied," the ASFA submission said.
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