SMSF trustees who have not lodged their transfer balance account report (TBAR) by the close of business today will have missed the deadline for this quarter, according to the ATO, which has reminded them their fund must hold its own unique bank account.
As part of a series of updates published late last week, the regulator reminded SMSF trustees they were required to lodge a TBAR by 28 July if the fund had a transfer balance account event that occurred between 1 April and 30 June 2021, and if any member of the fund had a total super balance greater than $1 million.
It emphasised the need for TBARs to be lodged given the new personal transfer balance caps that will apply from the start of the 2022 financial year.
“We are encouraging all SMSFs to report any event which occurred before 1 July 2021 to us as soon as possible to ensure that our calculation of your member’s personal transfer balance cap from 1 July 2021 is based on complete information and does not need to be reviewed,” it stated.
“To help you, we have extended the circumstances where SMSFs can use the reasonable estimate method to support their TBAR reporting and have updated our web content to help you understand how the timing of your reporting impacts how we calculate your member’s personal transfer balance cap from 1 July 2021.”
It also raised the issue of the absence of unique bank accounts held by an SMSF and stated it had written to trustees where ATO records showed a fund did not have or had not reported a unique bank account for the receipt of super payments.
SMSFs are required to hold a bank account in the fund’s name to manage its operations and accept contributions, rollovers and investment income and that account must be separate from the individual bank accounts of any trustee, it said.
“If you have received this letter, it means our records show another entity has also reported this bank account to us,” it said.
“There may be a number of reasons why this has occurred. In some instances, this could be because your tax agent’s bank account (used for your tax refunds) has also been reported as the bank account for superannuation payments.
“Alternatively, a trustee or member of your SMSF may have incorrectly reported the SMSF’s bank account on their records.”
The ATO called on funds in this situation to update their bank account details immediately as a failure to do so was a risk to the retirement benefits of members and would prevent any rollover of funds in or out of the SMSF.
A unique bank account for superannuation payments was also required for an SMSF to be able to use SuperStream from 1 October.
