ATO Issues a Reminder for PAYG As It Applies to Super Trustees

If a super fund trustee is paying a benefit to a member and tax must be withheld from the benefit payment, the super fund must register for PAYG Withholding.

Generally, any benefit paid to a member who is under age 60 will generally be taxable in part or in full (there are some exceptions).

The super fund will need to issue a PAYG Payment Summary to the member once the payment is made.

• For superannuation lump sum payments the relevant PAYG Payment Summary must be issued within 14 days of the payment of the lump sum (use ATO form NAT 70947).
• For superannuation income stream payments the relevant PAYG Payment Summary must be issued within 14 days of the end of the financial year in which the payments were made (use ATO form NAT 70987).

If a super fund issues one or more payments summaries in respect of a financial year, the Trustee of the super fund must also provide to the ATO a PAYG withholding payment summary statement (ATO form NAT 3447) within six weeks after the end of the relevant financial year.

For example, if a super fund pays a pension to a member during 2008/09 which is either taxable in full or in part (eg a transition to retirement pension and the member receiving the pension is under age 60) then the PAYG Payment summary for the member must be issued by 14 July 2009 and the PAYG withholding payment summary statement must be issued by 14 August 2009.