The start date for SMSFs to begin making rollovers using SuperStream will be pushed back to 2021, with the federal government announcing the system will receive additional funding and be expanded ahead of that date.
The funding, announced as part of the 2019/20 federal budget, will total $19.3 million over three years from the 2021 financial year, with $12.6 million of the total to be capital funding in 2020/21 for the ATO.
In announcing the funding, the government also stated it would expand the electronic SuperStream Rollover Standard used for the transfer of information and money between employers, superannuation funds and the ATO.
As a result of this expansion, rollovers for all funds, including SMSFs, would be delayed from the original start date of 30 November 2019 until 31 March 2021, when the new standard will be introduced.
SMSF Association head of policy Jordan George said the delay would allow the government to have all components of the SuperStream system operational at the same time and the inclusion of rollovers would be important for SMSFs.
“Under the current rules APRA (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority)-regulated funds have up to 30 days to complete a rollover to an SMSF and under SuperStream it will be a mandated time of three days,” George said.
“It is something the association has advocated for over a number of years because it will make the system more efficient not only for rollovers into SMSFs, but out of them into other funds as well, so there will be benefits when SMSFs are part of that system.”
SuperConcepts SMSF technical and private wealth executive manager Graeme Colley said it was “a pity” the initiative has been postponed for SMSFs as many trustees he has spoken to were already preparing for the measure.
“It just frustrates things for both people who want to roll over balances from big funds to SMSFs and vice versa too as it means those wishing to wind up their self-managed super fund for various reasons will just have to keep things going the way they are at the moment,” Colley said.
Miller Super Solutions founder Tim Miller agreed the delay is annoying for SMSF members, but does not think it will have too much of an effect.
“Having the delay – it does add that element of frustration. It would be nice to have it in place earlier, but I don’t think it fundamentally changes the way people think about these things too much,” Miller noted.
KnowIt Group senior technical manager Rob Lavery looked at the new time frame in a positive light.
“It will allow trustees more time to adjust with the requirements of SuperStream,” Lavery said.
Self-managed Independent Superannuation Funds Association chair Chirs Balalovski noted while SuperStream would increase the efficiency of payments into SMSFs, delaying its application to the sector was not problematic.
“Overall it will not make a huge impact on the SuperStream system,” Balalovski said.
