Superannuation members who withdrew funds under the COVID-19 early release of super scheme can make recontributions without them being considered part of their non-concessional cap, but the ATO has warned a specific approved form must be used.
The ATO noted members have between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2030 to recontribute funds into their superannuation, but members must report details to their super fund using an approved form.
“If you [the super fund] have received an approved form from a member, you need to report this information to the ATO monthly. The ATO has now released functionality in online services to enable you to lodge using the ‘file transfer’ service,” the regulator said.
Super funds, including SMSFs, have been advised to provide the regulator with information detailed within the COVID-19 recontribution approved form on a monthly basis and to lodge that information through the ATO’s online services for businesses and online services for agents portals, or over the phone for SMSFs without access to those portals.
Funds will also be required to report COVID-19 recontribution amounts to the ATO via its member account transaction service as a personal contribution.
In a separate update, the regulator noted COVID-19 recontributions fall under the category of non-mandated contributions for an SMSF and the acceptance of those contributions depends on a range of conditions.
These conditions require that an SMSF can only accept a non-mandated member contribution if the fund has the member’s tax file number (TFN), otherwise the contribution must be returned within 30 days unless the member provides the TFN inside that time period.
As part of the update, the ATO noted other forms of non-mandated contributions include contributions made by employers over and above their super guarantee or award obligations, such as salary sacrifice contributions, as well as personal member contributions, downsizer contributions, super co-contributions, eligible spouse contributions and contributions made by a third party, such as an insurer.
It also noted not all non-mandated contributions were available to all members and age restrictions applied to downsizer contributions for members under 67 and employment conditions applied to members aged over 67 but under 75.
