SMSF members do not need to provide a zero-dollar notice of intent form for personal deductible contributions where no deduction is being claimed as this would be beyond the ATO’s stated requirements, according to a sector specialist.
Heffron SMSF technical and education services director Leigh Mansell made the statement in response to a question about whether members need to supply their fund’s auditor with a section 290-170 notice of intent to claim a deduction for personal super contributions even where no claim is being made.
Addressing the situation during a recent online briefing, Mansell said a practitioner was told in these cases to provide a notice with $0 showing for the non-deductible contributions and had not seen this request before.
“We have not seen that before either and have never heard of it, but that request was coming from an auditor,” she noted.
“I went to the instructions for the section 290-170 notice and it says you only need a notice of intent if you intend to claim a tax deduction and there’s no requirement anywhere to do one if you don’t intend to claim a deduction.
“So, you do not need one for the zero amounts that the auditor is asking for.”
She recognised there was some confusion around the use of section 290-170 notices and reminded attendees of the briefing they could use a single notice to cover all personal contributions made in a particular year or choose to lodge multiple notices throughout the year where that was more suitable.
“Where this could be useful is you are allowed to amend or vary them, but only down; you are not allowed to vary them up,” she explained.
“So, in the event a client has lodged a notice and they decide later in the financial year they have another personal contribution and wouldn’t mind getting a deduction for that as well, they can lodge another notice and that’s perfectly fine to do that.
“Another thing to watch out for, a section 290-170 notice doesn’t have to cover a specific contribution, but can cover contributions generally.
“We had one in a fund that covers all contributions up until some date in October because then a transition-to-retirement income stream (TRIS) started with the money that was in it.
“We wanted that money locked into the TRIS and to be a taxable component in it, but also wanted to make sure we met the deadline for claiming a deduction on those particular contributions beforehand.”
Jason Spits
SENIOR JOURNALIST
Jason is a senior journalist with Benchmark Media and writes for the selfmanagedsuper website and magazine and smstrusteenews website. He has covered financial services since 1999 and has written about life insurance, superannuation, investment management and financial advice, in both a freelance and in-house capacity, and also did a brief stint as a media manager for an industry association. He has been the editor of trade titles Money Management and Financial Standard, and was most recently senior journalist with life insurance title Riskinfo.
Articles by Jason