ATO client data updated fairly promptly

A senior industry executive has laid out the timeframe over which the ATO will update its superannuation data after 30 June in light of the changes that have occurred to some of the thresholds affecting contributions.

“The ATO has said there are a number of pieces of information that will appear at its end in relation to superannuation. It has said you should have the indexation of the unused portion of your transfer balance cap from 13 July,” BT Financial Group advice strategy and technical specialist Tim Howard told attendees of a practitioner webinar last week.

“Total super balance should be fairly quick as well, but contributions history will be subject to how quickly the trustee of a super fund actually reports last year’s contributions through to the ATO.”

Howard suggested the information relating to members of industry and retail superannuation funds is likely to be available sooner than that for SMSF members as the trustees of those vehicles tend to submit contributions data in a timelier manner.

During his presentation, he also outlined courses of action if a client was unable to readily access this information because they did not have a myGov account.

“You may be able to call the ATO and get [the information] over the phone, [but] I’m not sure whether you can do that,” he said.

“[If you did phone the ATO for this data], you would certainly need [some valid] ID.”

His best recommendation was to have the client set up a myGov account as soon as possible, but at the same time recognised this was not always a practical solution.

“If [the client] is at an age where that’s not going to be possible and they’ve got a tax agent, then I’d go via the tax agent to get that information,” he suggested.