The SMSF Association has welcomed the ATO’s decision to give trustees an extra three months to declare any tax planning schemes where personal income has been diverted to their SMSF.
The new 30 April deadline will give trustees more time to voluntarily come forward to disclose their participation in such schemes and potentially reduce any penalties.
“The initial Taxpayer Alert (TA) 2016/6 was issued in April last year with a deadline of 31 January 2017, so the decision by the ATO to extend the deadline is welcomed,” SMSF Association head of technical Peter Hogan said today.
“The association encourages all SMSF professionals and trustees to consider carefully all their investments and arrangements with all parties, whether related or not, for compliance with the superannuation and tax laws, as well as any other relevant legislation.
“They should also revisit TA 2016/6. The association encourages all SMSF professionals to revisit this alert to review its potential impact on their SMSF clients.”
In addition, Hogan said consideration should also be given to disclosing any arrangements that caused concern in order to take advantage of the deadline extension.
He said the extension highlighted a wider concern that ongoing, day-to-day compliance for SMSFs was still extremely important and should not be ignored, despite the overwhelming focus on implementing the government’s 1 July changes to super.
“Although planning for and implementing strategies over the next five months in anticipation of the 1 July changes is critical, trustees and their advisers need to be diligent and cognisant of their ongoing obligations arising over this period and take appropriate action in a timely manner,” he noted.
