Nothing is constant but change. This is never more true than in the area of superannuation. The Australian Taxation Office has released its final decision on Events Based Reporting. What this basically means for SMSFs is that from 1 July 2018, if you have a pension (other than a transition to retirement pension) on foot at 1 July 2018, or start a pension, or commute a pension, or a number of other events that will affect your transfer balance cap – you have to let the ATO know within 28 days of the end of the month following the quarter in which the transaction occurred.

There is a carve-out for SMSFs with no members with a total superannuation account balance over $1 million.

This means it is imperative, from 1 July 2018, to let us know when these events occur within your fund.

One of the most important transactions we need to know about is when you withdraw more than your minimum pension amount. No longer is it always the best thing to just allocate the excess to your pension account. In fact, it may well be best not to where you have accumulation balances as well.

Documentation has to be prospective, and the timeframe for lodgement of this information with the ATO imposes a new incentive for having documentation prepared early.

The upshot of this is, if you are looking at drawing more than your minimum pension from 1 July 2018, please contact us as there are planning opportunities which may be missed if we don't act on time. 

Failure to report by the appropriate dates will also result in financial penalties.