Government likely to revisit off-market transfers
A number of important legislative changes for the self-managed super fund (SMSF) sector were not implemented before Parliament rose, according to Peter Burgess, head of policy & technical for AMP SMSF.
Speaking at the SMSF Professionals' Association of Australia's (SPAA) Technical Conference in Sydney last week, Burgess said the changes relating to trustee penalties, rollover of funds into an SMSF, and tougher penalties for illegal early release would have addressed some legislative shortcomings in the SMSF sector.
"While the scrapping of the proposed banning of off-market transfers was broadly seen as win for the sector, there is evidence that some tightening of the rules is necessary," he said.
"It is likely the Government of the day will need to revisit their position on SMSF off-market transfers. A tightening of the rules, rather than the outright banning of off-market transfers, would be in the best interest of the SMSF sector," Burgess said.
"All of these changes are about strengthening the integrity of the sector and helping to minimise the likelihood of fraud occurring in the SMSF sector - of critical importance at a time when assets under management are about $500 billion."
According to Burgess, although these changes failed to make it through the Parliament, there were some positive changes that got the thumbs up during the last legislative session.
"In particular, the higher concessional caps introduced for the 2013-14 financial year and the repealing of the excess contributions tax in relation to excess concessional caps were two important changes that enjoyed widespread support across the industry," he said.
Originally published by SMSF Essentials.
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