An industry poll conducted today has shown the majority of SMSF practitioners would prefer the ATO to implement a single framework for transfer balance account reports (TBAR).
During the latest Accurium technical webinar, 75 per cent of attendees indicated a single TBAR framework would benefit the sector.
In a separate but related poll, practitioners were asked what single framework option they expected the ATO to implement should there be a change to the current system, with three potential options from which to choose – yearly, quarterly or monthly.
In response, 62 per cent of participants said they thought the regulator would opt for a quarterly reporting regime for all SMSFs, another 27 per cent expected an annual reporting schedule would be imposed on the sector and 11 per cent anticipated the new time frame would be monthly.
The Accurium technical team sought responses to these questions in the wake of a TBAR review the ATO recently announced.
“The ATO is currently seeking feedback on potential changes to the transfer balance account reporting regime. So they’re doing a consultation process at the moment to look at the possibility of moving to a single transfer balance account reporting framework for all SMSFs,” Accurium managing director Doug McBirnie revealed.
“I haven’t heard whether the ATO has a preferred time frame, but I’d be surprised if they went for the longer [option] in annual.”
Accurium head of education Mark Ellem said he was not anticipating a monthly reporting regime to be introduced either.
“I would be surprised if [the ATO chose monthly reporting] considering SMSFs haven’t experienced monthly [reporting to date],” Ellem said.
The current transfer balance account rules dictate SMSFs servicing a member with a total super balance of $1 million or greater as at 30 June of a particular year will have to lodge a TBAR quarterly. All other SMSFs are only required to lodge a TBAR annually.
