Extension of ATO powers on SMSFs urged
The Federal Government has been urged to extend the ability of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to use administrative penalties with respect to minor self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) breaches.
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has used a submission to the Treasury to support the ATO's use of administrative penalties as outlined in legislative amendments but has urged that they be more extensively used.
The ASFA submission says that under his present powers the Tax Commissioner has very few compliance tools with which to deal with breaches by SMSF trustees.
"Apart from applying to a court for civil penalties to be imposed, and requiring trustees to accept an enforceable undertaking in relation to contraventions, the only other action available to the commissioner is to make a SMSF non-complying for tax purposes," it said.
The submission then noted that the exposure draft of the legislation applied administrative penalties to "contraventions of only some of the provisions that apply to SMSFs".
"ASFA recommends that administrative penalties in relation to SMSFs should be able to be applied in respect to contraventions of all provisions, not only those provisions listed in the exposure draft," it said.
The ASFA submission said that by doing so the regulator would be given greater flexibility in dealing with SMSFs and their trustees who commit minor breaches.
"A major benefit here is that no longer will the Regulator have to make the difficult choice between declaring the SMSF non-complying, disqualifying the trustee, facing the difficult procedure task of seeking court-imposed civil or criminal penalty provisions, or taking no action at all," it said.
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