The ATO has informed Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)-regulated funds planning rollovers into an SMSF that its SMSF Verification Service (SVS) is being delayed due to a high volume of manual verification requests.
In an update on its website directed to APRA-regulated funds, the ATO noted its ability to process verification requests via the SVS had been delayed due to the number of manual verification requests.
An APRA fund, or another SMSF, is required to verify if an SMSF is eligible to receive a rollover as part of the SuperStream transaction system, which commenced on 1 October. The SVS confirms the complying status of the SMSF, as well as its bank account and electronic service address (ESA) details and the tax file number of the individual associated with the rollover.
In the update, the regulator reminded fund trustees a manual verification was only to be requested when a fund did not hold the member’s tax file number or the SVS was not operational or available for more than three business days.
It also requested funds not to send multiple requests for the same member as the original request will be processed in time.
According to the update, the manual verification template will be updated on 18 October to include ESA and bank account details as mandatory fields.
“Until then, when you do not provide these details in the template, the ATO cannot verify them and the response you receive will be based [only] on the information you have provided,” it said.
It added the SVS was a mandatory electronic service that must be used to verify SMSF details prior to making a rollover to an SMSF and that a manual verification was not required to confirm the request outcome as the information is organised to send within the SVS.
