Olivia Long, CEO of Xpress Super and SuperGuardian, noted that from 1 January 2015 the new deeming rules mean that account-based pensions started after this date will be assessed differently when determining an individual’s eligibility to receive the CSHC.
“It is something SMSFs must be vigilant about,” Ms Long said.
“Account-based superannuation income streams started before 31 December 2014 may be entitled to grandfathering provisions, where payments are assessed concessionally. Retirees need to be careful because if a pension is ‘reset’ via a stop and restart then this is considered a new pension and grandfathering is lost.
“Not many people realise that if eligibility for the card is lost, even for a short period of time, the grandfathering for all the Account-Based Pension is lost,” she said. “This can occur even if a person travels overseas for just six weeks.”
Ms Long said it is important that SMSF trustees who have transferred most of their assets into their super fund should now review how they are structured.
The caution is useful in regard to the ‘stop, start & recommence’ strategy in hybrid phase (member a pensioner and also accumulator), employed to maximise the Exempt Current Pension figure.
A correction, however: the new rules change the period of overseas stay from 6 to 19 weeks from 1 January 2015.