ATO over-charging on Lost Members Register

There is little justification for the amount of money being raised in financial services levies to support the Australian Taxation Office’s administration of the Lost Members Register (LMR) Account, according to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).

In a submission to the Treasury dealing with the latest financial sector levies used to fund the activities of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the ATO, ASFA suggests the tax office may be using the amount attributed to the LMR to cover general administrative costs.

“ASFA continues to have reservations about the ATO recovering a very complete range of general overhead costs not even remotely connected to the register,” the submission said.

“An amount of $7.3 million for the operation of the LMR appears to involve a very generous level of funding which we believe is not commensurate with the volume of enquiries handled and what is involved in maintaining an electronic register based on bulk information supplied by funds,” it said.

The submission said that ASFA had also noted that as a result of the new Departed Temporary Residents and lost members’ measures, in the next year or so nearly half of the accounts listed on the LMR will actually be unclaimed monies that have been paid into consolidated revenue.

“In these circumstances, ASFA does not consider that it is appropriate that superannuation funds should be levied for the claimed full costs of running the LMR,” the submission said.