SUPERCentral News
One of the key elements of the current super regime is the contribution caps.
Recently, the issue has been raised that unless the governing rules of a super fund expressly set out the SIS Act pension standards (eg for account-based pensions or transition to retirement pensions) the pension will not qualify as a SIS Act pension and the paying fund will not be entitled to the tax exemption for pension income.
The ATO has issued Taxpayer Alert TA 2010/2 warning that SMSF trust provisions which are intended to circumvent the operation of the excess contributions caps will not be treated as being effective by the ATO.
The Tax Commissioner recently advised that the ATO has identified 35,000 potential cases of excess contributions from the 2007/08 tax year which involve a significant tax liability.
The ATO has recently released the following rates/thresholds which will apply for 2010/11
After a careful reading of the Proposals Paper issued in relation to the review of the taxation treatment of instalment warrants our lawyers’ view is that:
To combat the problem of illegal early release the ATO has created a new designation for its Super Fund Look Up register: Registered - status not determined.
Broadly the Australian life insurance market provides three different types of total and permanent disability (‘TPD’) insurance, namely “any occupation”, “similar occupation” or “own occupation”.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has recently released guidelines on the processes which large funds should consider implementing to determine the validity of member requests to transfer and rollover benefits from large funds to SMSFs.
The Ruling TR 2010/1 on Superannuation Contributions will be the subject of special Technical Report which is currently being prepared and which will be issued shortly.
The Minister responsible for Superannuation, Chris Bowen, at the recent SPAA conference has confirmed the Government’s view that Superannuation is a vital mechanism for national savings.
At the recent SPAA conference (the premier conference for SMSF advisers) the Super System Review Chairman, Jeremy Cooper provided a short and effective summary of what is good about SMSFs.
The Superannuation Minister, Chris Bowen, has announced that the Government will amend the taxation law in relation to instalment warrant arrangements (including super gearing arrangements).
The Financial Services Minister (also Mr Chris Bowen) has announced that certain borrowing arrangements made by super fund trustees permitted by the SIS Act are to be deemed to be a financial product.
To achieve superannuation goals a disciplined approach to investment is required. However, for SMSF’s this approach must also ensure that any investment decisions satisfy the prudential investment requirements of the SIS Act. To assist Advisers and Trustees Michael Hallinan has produced a SMSF Investment Decision Tree which outlines the prudential investment requirements of the SIS Act in a manner which is easy to understand and apply when considering a particular investment decision.
The ATO has recently released an Interpretative Decisions in relation to Anti detriment payments.
SMSFs which were registered during the 2008/09 tax year must have their audit completed and their annual return lodged by 28 February 2010.
The report of the long awaited and once-in-a-generation review of the Tax and Transfer system known as the Henry Review has been handed to the Government.
Newly registered SMSFs can still accept contributions and rollovers. They will still qualify as complying super funds retrospectively from the date of their establishment (assuming of course that they are registered within the required time, there are no serious contraventions of the SIS operating standards, and the annual return is lodged).
Newly registered SMSFs will soon be identified on the Super Lookup website as “registered status not determined†rather than “complyingâ€.