ATO working on fix to SuperStream ‘pain point’ with APRA funds
With APRA funds failing to issue SMSFs with outcome response messages in certain scenarios, the ATO says it’s working with retail super funds to resolve the issues.
The ATO director of SuperStream rollovers version 3 project, Ian Morgan, says that as part of the messaging framework under SuperStream, the receiving super fund must send back a rollover transaction outcome response where it has received a rollover message.
“This advises the transferring fund whether the rollover can be processed correctly or not, or if any issues may need correcting in order to perform the rollover,” said Mr Morgan in a recent webinar with the SMSF Association.
“That outcome response message is required to be sent within three days of receiving the rollover itself and allocating it to the member’s account.”
This requirement applied to both SMSF trustees and APRA fund trustees, he said.
“So, if an SMSF is rolling over to an APRA fund, they have that same requirement to provide the SMSF with an outcome response within three business days of allocating to the member’s account."
While the standard did require the outcome response to be sent for any rollover transaction message, Mr Morgan said the ATO was aware of some situations where the APRA fund had not provided that outcome response.
“We’re aware of some scenarios, for example, where the payment itself has gone through a non-SuperStream standard channel and the APRA fund has accepted this as being what the member intends to do but it hasn’t come through the SuperStream channel, and as such, they’re advising that they’re unable to provide the outcome response,” he explained.
“Now, as we mentioned before, the outcome response is a requirement, and so we’re working with our APRA fund colleagues on how we can find a successful resolution to this matter so that outcome responses are provided for every rollover message.”
Where SMSFs had not received a response back from an APRA fund, they should first follow up with the APRA fund to ensure the rollover had been processed successfully, said Mr Morgan.
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.
