SMSF practitioners and trustees should not rely on an extension to the deadline for lodging an SMSF Annual Return (SAR) but should ask for a deferral from the ATO as soon as possible if required, according to the SMSF Association (SMSFA).
SMSFA technical manager Mary Simmons said while accountants, advisers and trustees were still considering the outcomes of last week’s federal budget, the requirement to lodge SARs on time had not changed and no sector wide exemptions were expected.
“To assume that the Commissioner [of Taxation] is about to announce a blanket extension, deferring all 2019/20 SMSF annual return lodgements till 30 June 2021 would be unwise,” Simmons said.
Speaking to selfmanagedsuper, Simmons added the industry body had not heard of, and was not expecting, any special treatment of SARs in 2021 and urged practitioners and trustees to contact the ATO if they were going to miss the lodgement deadline.
“There may be the thought that the ATO gave an extension in 2020 and they will do it again but that is not the case,” Simmons said.
“Instead, if you need help, or to defer the lodgement, you should be putting up your hand now.
Simmons added the ATO had informed the SMSFA it had put in place specialist team to assist with deferral arrangements and that it recognised practitioners were still dealing with COVID-19 related relief measures, such as JobKeeper.
She added SMSFA members were also struggling with auditors swamped with last minute work and accountants admitting they were still waiting on tax information from third-party sources.
“There is a time lag but this year it is more of an issue because of COVID-19 and our main concern is that SMSFA members are not putting up their hand soon enough and approaching the ATO for help.”
SAR lodgement dates for newly registered funds was 28 February but for existing funds that date was 15 May, or 5 June for SMSFs that were non-taxable or received a refund by latest year lodged and are non-taxable or will receive a refund in current year.
SMSFs that do not have an extension and lodge a SAR more than two weeks overdue will have their compliance status changed on the Super Fund Lookup to ‘Regulation Details Removed’. A such they will be unable to receive employer super guarantee payments and rollovers from other superannuation providers, and may face administrative penalties.
