Jemma Sanderson, director, head of SMSF and succession for Cooper Partners, said that excess contributions can impact other contribution strategies if not done correctly.
Speaking at the SMSF Association Technical Summit, Sanderson said generally it’s not the “end of the world” if a member exceeds their concessional cap, but it’s important to ensure that the excess is released so it does not impede any other non-concessional contribution strategies that may be in place.
“This is because sometimes the excess [contribution] notices don’t come through until years later and the last thing you want is that if you’ve put in place a contribution plan and then something that happened quite a few years before it makes that ineffective, or you’re going to get an excess non-concessional contribution notice,” she said.
Excess concessional contributions used to be subject to an excess concessional contributions charge, which was an amount imposed on the tax difference between the 15 per cent tax on the contribution and the member’s marginal tax rate at the shortfall interest charge.
“That has since been removed, which is a good thing, but it is still important to watch out for excess concessional contributions.”
Another thing to consider, Sanderson warned, is that money can not be taken out of a fund until the ATO has issued permission to do so.
“Some people may believe that if they have gone over their cap, they can just take that amount out of the fund, less than 15 per cent tax on it and then pay the tax later,” Sanderson said.
“If you do that, it could be a breach of the payment standards, or there is also the consideration that it hasn’t satisfied that release authority, and you’ve got to take more money out later.”
This is more relevant when looking at dealing with excess non-concessional contributions because these provisions are harsher as they also include accrued associated earnings.
“They are not just on the tax difference between the raw excess, that is what is attributed with associated earnings, which is accrued earnings over the period from 1 July of the year of the excess until the tax office tells you to deal with it.”
“The Tax Office doesn’t know you’ve got an excess contribution until you lodge the tax return for the relevant financial year for that fund. For the big funds, that’s by 31 October, and the ATO won’t issue any notices of excess non-concessional contributions until at least the big funds have lodged or met their lodgement gone through their lodgment day and generally, the first time we might see a notice is in November.”
