Advisers warned on common errors with notices of intent

Mr Day also noted that the member will need to give a notice of intent to be able to claim a tax deduction.

“With clients often looking to start lodging their tax return around this time of year, there can be a lot of queries about the notice of intent,” he said.

Mr Day said the notice of intent to claim can be quite tricky and if clients get it wrong it could place the deductibility of their contribution at risk.

Colonial First State senior technical analyst Richard Chen said there are often two areas where people can fall into traps with notice of intents.

“Firstly, the timeframe is super important. The notice of intent must be submitted with the super fund before the tax return is lodged,” Mr Chen explained in a recent CFS podcast. 

“If the notice of intent has already been lodged but the client or accountant has realised that the client doesn’t actually need to claim, or they don’t want to claim as much, then the notice of intent must be varied with the super fund before the tax return is lodged.”

Advisers, he said, should remind clients not to lodge their tax return until everything is already sorted out.

Is it also important advisers consider whether it's actually tax effective for the client to claim the deduction, he added.

Mr Chen said advisers may want to refer to the tax free threshold and compare the client’s income to that.

“Advisers need to consider whether the client actually has enough income to be able to claim the tax deduction. If their taxable income is insufficient, it will not be possible to claim a deduction that’s going to result in a tax loss,” he said.

“If that does happen, the amount that they’ve claimed as a tax deduction will actually be disallowed by the Tax Office. This will then be counted towards their non-concessional cap instead of the concessional cap.”

This could potentially lead to disastrous consequences, said Mr Chen, including a breach of the non-concessional cap.