

Budget changes and poor Tax Office data hit super advice

Sally RoseReporter

Financial planners want better access to tax data to help them advise clients how to maximise their superannuation savings without putting them at risk of breaching tough new caps. Tighter limits on how much money people can stash into the tax-advantaged settings of super were announced as part of the 2016 federal budget in May.

The wealth management industry has warned the new rules will be complex to administer.

Now an industry group representing about 100 independent financial planning businesses has written to Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer asking her to ensure individuals and their advisers can get better access to Australian Taxation Office (ATO) data to ensure people don't unintentionally break the new rules.

Financial planners are struggling to advise clients on superannuation contributions without online access to tax data.  Louie Douvis

"We have requested that all post-2007 contributions records from tax-return records be made available through MyGov, or a similar online portal, for financial planners to access on behalf of their clients," Boutique Financial Planners president Dacian Moses said.

New superannuation contribution caps announced in the budget make the ability to collect accurate and timely contributions data from the Tax Office critical to individuals and their financial planners, he said.


Perhaps the most controversial of the super changes announced in the budget package was a new $500,000 lifetime limit on non-concessional (after-tax) contributions, effective immediately and backdated to 2007. The annual concessional (pre-tax) contribution limit was also lowered to $25,000.

"As of now, should a client seek advice on the appropriateness of making a contribution to superannuation, we have no way to accurately check their contribution history back to 2007," Mr Moses wrote in the letter to Ms O'Dwyer.

Taxpayers are required to hold their personal tax details for only five years, so many people who had been planning to make additional non-concessional contributions are now struggling to figure out how much they are still allowed to put in.

Super funds and super fund administrators can provide their members and clients with a history made to that particular fund, but many people have more than one fund. A significant number of people have old super funds they have lost track of.

Individuals, or their authorised advisers, can already apply to the Tax Office to receive a complete contributions history.

But Visis Private Wealth founding partner Chris Smith said this typically takes three weeks, meaning many people seeking advice now about how much they can contribute before the end of financial year would be left hanging.

"Most clients just don't have the detail to hand of all the super contributions they have made over the past five years. Without timely access to the ATO's records there is a risk that any advice to make additional contributions could put people in breach of the rules," the Brisbane-based adviser said.

An ATO spokesman told The Australian Financial Review the agency was open to making the data more accessible online.

"Subject to policy outcomes, the ATO would consider options to improve the visibility of the ATO-held superannuation contributions data of individuals."


Most Viewed In Companies