SMSF trustees and planners are being advised to prepare for the SuperStream rollover changes set to apply from 1 October, with the ATO stating this was a hard deadline and no further extensions will be granted.
Speaking to SMSF Association technical manager Mary Simmons in a video interview, ATO superannuation and employer obligations director and rollover project manager Belinda Black said the initial deadline had already passed and the revised October deadline was now fixed.
“The law actually states trustees are to comply with the SuperStream data and payment standards for any rollovers from 31 March 2021. However, the commissioner extended to all trustees until 1 October to onboard to SuperStream because of the amount of changes and challenges everyone faced last year, and so because of this extension we’ve already provided, we do not see any further extensions being made,” Black said.
She said despite the changes, not all SMSFs will be immediately impacted by them, but will need to comply when they are making a rollover into, or out of, an SMSF.
“The only time SMSFs will be impacted by the rollover changes is when they need to or want to undertake a rollover. So often we know this is around setting up an SMSF, winding up an SMSF or restructuring an SMSF,” she said.
She also clarified the process for new members when commencing a rollover from an Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)-regulated fund.
“The first thing they have to do is they need to ensure the SMSF has an electronic service address that can action and process rollover requests. Secondly, they need to make sure that their SMSF fund details and their members details are up to date with us. And thirdly, they must have an ABN (Australian business number) and ensure their SMSF has a unique bank account for super purposes and it is recorded with us as well,” she said.
“By not doing any of these things before initiating the rollover request will delay the process. Initiating the rollover request remains unchanged. SMSFs can still do this via myGov like they can today.”
In an update on its website, the ATO stated the SuperStream changes would impact SMSF trustees and advisers when making a rollover into an SMSF and a transferring fund trustee will need to use the SMSF verification service (SVS) to verify their fund details.
The changes would also impact rollovers out of an SMSF where trustees must use the SMSF member tax file number (TFN) identity check service to validate the impacted member TFN prior to processing the rollover out of the SMSF, and if rolling into an APRA-regulated fund, they must use the fund validation service to obtain APRA fund details.
“Some scenarios may even require further information to be provided. However, once all the necessary information is received, the rollover will occur within three days and via SuperStream. In this scenario then, once the money is received into the SMSF account, it’s the SMSF’s responsibility to then respond through SuperStream, confirming the money’s been received,” Black said.
