The ATO is aware of the common issues SMSF trustees are having to deal with as a result of using the SuperStream system for rollovers and it is anticipated a working solution will be found in the immediate future.
“From my understanding [the regulator] is looking at these situations very closely and we may be seeing some information come out from the ATO in future, which means we may have some exceptions that can apply to known issues when trustees can’t do anything about them,” ASF Audits head of education Shelley Banton revealed.
In particular, Banton said the regulator is looking to address situations where bank transfer limits are preventing superannuation rollovers from being made via one SuperStream transaction. In these situations, trustees are finding themselves having to use multiple transactions to complete the rollover that cannot all be processed within the three-day timeframe set out in Superannuation Industry (Supervision) (SIS) regulation 6.17, subsequently constituting a compliance breach.
“If we look at the multiple transaction issue, there may, for example, be an exception if that first transaction was undertaken [within] the three-day timeframe even [if] the subsequent transactions exceed that three-day timeframe,” she noted.
“So I guess [we’ll have to] stay tuned and keep an eye on the ATO website for any sort of announcement and if it does come to pass, it is going to be really positive reinforcement that we see a commercial and sensible approach adopted to stop all of the unnecessary red tape.”
According to Banton, the current situation means trustees have no choice but to resign themselves to breaching SIS regulation 6.17 if a super fund rollover has to be executed using a number of transfers and suggested the best response available is to ensure the documentation relating to the transaction is detailed.
“The breach can’t be rectified so [trustees] just need to be able to provide as much documentation as possible around those circumstances,” she advised.
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