Superannuation industry at odds over SuperStream costs
The Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals' Association (SPAA) has hit back at calls for self-managed super fund (SMSF) members to pay more towards the SuperStream levy, saying they already pay enough.
Last week the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) called on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to include SMSFs in the levy, saying that if they were not included superannuation funds would be at a disadvantage.
SPAA chief executive Andrea Slattery said if SMSFs were to pay an extra $38,000 in levies to help cover the cost of SuperStream, each member would be paying $40 on average towards the cost of the initiative.
She said superannuation funds would pay less than $5 per member, while the SMSF levy was recently raised by $20 per SMSF, collecting $9.4 million, which SPAA assumed was to cover the cost of SuperStream.
"The figures clearly suggest SMSF members are, on average, already contributing more towards the cost of SuperStream than members of Australian Prudential Regulation Authority-regulated funds," she said.
ASFA said ASIC's estimate of the cost per superannuation member as a result of the levy at $4 was grossly under-estimated.
But Slattery said it was illogical for SMSF members to pay more because they have a higher balance when they would not incur more costs for the Australian Taxation Office.
"In fact the opposite might well be the case, as APRA funds are more likely to have higher volumes of contributions and other transactions," she said.
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