ATO backs Cooper SMSF initiatives

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has thrown its support behind a number of recommendations contained in the Cooper Review designed to tighten up rollover arrangements between Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) registered funds and self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs).

The deputy commissioner of Taxation, Neil Olesen, revealed the ATO’s positive stance on the Cooper recommendations last week saying that the use of Tax File Numbers and bank account numbers to validate member identities would strengthen the safeguards and improve efficiency around superannuation rollovers.

At the same time, Olesen revealed that the ATO’s existing tightening of arrangements aimed at preventing illegal early release of superannuation had resulted in the identification of 140 SMSFs that were regarded as illegitimate.

“Earlier this year, we strengthened the SMSF registration process by ensuring all new SMSFs are risk assessed before their details can appear on Super Fund Lookup,” he said. “This means we can identify and prevent illegitimate SMSFs from operating, and has already resulted in 140 SMSFs not being allowed to operate.”

Olesen said that the ATO was also providing clearer information to APRA funds via Super Fund Lookup, via status updates such as ‘Registered — status not determined’, ‘Non-complying’ or ‘Withheld’ together with an explanation of whether or not the ATO had concerns about particular SMSFs.