A major SMSF stakeholder has called on the federal government to confirm what needs to be done this year in order to comply with the SuperStream legislation after the implementation of the system to the sector was pushed back to 31 March 2021.
The original legislation required an SMSF to obtain a digital address and supply it to the ATO by 30 November 2019 in order for the fund to be able to receive a contribution, other than that from a related-party employer or a member, or a rollover from another superannuation fund.
The delayed start date is now causing concern among SMSF service providers.
“With the law being in place but the 2019 budget announcement deferring the commencement of the changes, administrators and other superannuation professionals are confused about what needs to be done,” SuperConcepts private wealth executive manager Graeme Colley said.
“They are trying to work out whether the changes to their systems are necessary this year or to do nothing and wait until the regulators or government clear up the confusion.
“There is a real need for an official announcement to save the SMSF sector from unnecessarily allocating valuable staff resources and incurring costs now rather than later to implement the required system changes.”
According to Colley, the new measures have been designed to make the process of accepting contributions and rollovers less labour intensive, as well as reduce the time required to properly transfer benefits from an Australian Prudential Regulation Authority-regulated fund into an SMSF.
