Off-market transfer legislation abandoned
The government has abandoned proposed Off-Market Related Party Transfer amendments, which the SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) claims would have forced costly compliance conditions on self-managed super funds (SMSFs) buying or selling assets to or from related parties.
The government abandoned the proposed amendments on Wednesday evening, with SPAA and its members rallying against the changes, SPAA’s technical development and policy manager Jordan George told SMSF Adviser.
SPAA initially had a submission in the draft legislation and gave evidence to the parliamentary joint committee inquiry into the Bill, in which the association outlined its issues with the proposed amendment, Mr George said.
In addition, SPAA encouraged its members to write to their local council members if they were opposed to the changes. Mr George believes this may have been a factor in the abandonment of the proposed changes.
One of SPAA’s principal concerns was related to increased costs for SMSFs transferring listed securities from a related party into the SMSF. An additional concern SPAA raised in its submission was related to the need for a qualified independent valuation.
“The simple fact is that for some collectables it is difficult to find valuers and professional advisers who have the specific knowledge, experience and judgement to make a decision,” said SPAA chief executive officer Andrea Slattery.
SPAA also welcomed comments from Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury, who said “the concerns the measure is seeking to address are not as pressing as they were at the time of the [Super System] review.”
However, Mr George said SPAA intends to continue working with the government and advocate for a SIS regulation operating standard “to manage integrity around off-market transfers” to ensure SMSFs operate in a best practice environment.
