SPAA calls for transitional relief

The Self Managed Super Professionals' Association (SPAA) has called for transitional relief for self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) trustees caught up in a tougher Australian Taxation Office (ATO) approach to excess contributions.

The chief executive of SPAA, Andrea Slattery, said while her organisation welcomed the clarity provided by the ATO on the excess contributions issue, she believed transitional relief should be provided where inadvertent breaches had occurred.

“SPAA remains concerned about the lack of options for people, particularly SMSF trustees acting alone, who have inadvertently breached the concessional superannuation caps,” she said. “For many taxpayers the option of remedial action is virtually non-existent and this makes the contributions caps fundamentally different and the consequences much more severe.”

Slattery said that as a transitional measure, SPAA believed taxpayers who had exceeded their caps should be able to have the excess refunded without penalty.

“It appears most of the cases of excess contributions are the results of taxpayers being unfamiliar with the rules, and the changes in the rules in recent times,” she said. “Hence a transitional measure which enables these taxpayers to have their excess refunded would appear to be appropriate.”

The Australian Taxation Commissioner, Michael D’Ascenzo, yesterday issued a warning on the contributions caps saying that the insertion of clauses in SMSF trust deeds represented an attempt to avoid excess contributions tax.

He said the ATO had reviewed the arrangements and considered them to be ineffective.