Budget causing roadblocks for SMSF software providers
The uncertain nature of the proposed changes to the superannuation system has forced software providers to offer SMSF practices different options for the rules they want applied to their software, says a financial planning software company.
Midwinter managing director Julian Plummer told SMSF Adviser the outcome of many of the proposed tax reforms for superannuation is still very unclear and ensuring the software for super funds is up-to-date is extremely difficult.
“The legislation is so fluid and we’ve had such uncertainty around legislation, particularly in the past couple of months, so it’s not just a matter or updating our systems, it’s about giving people choices about which legislative framework, pre- or post-budget they want to go with [and] which rules they want to apply to this projection,” said Mr Plummer.
“Different licensees have different house views on what they want to do until the legislation is approved by parliament, so we have to not only update it, we have to figure out how to turn on and off different permissions based on assumptions for projection and modelling.”
Mr Plummer said there are vastly varying opinions between the different licensees on what they believe will become legislation and whether they want to start applying the legislative changes or adjusting their compliance framework now.
“So we’re pushing that choice back to the licensee. We’re saying, ‘Look, we’ve given you the range of options, and [we can] just configure it as you want.’”
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
