Expert flags ‘major issue’ impacting SMSF rollovers

Mr Busoli explained that where an APRA fund is going to move monies over to an SMSF, it will first check Super Fund Lookup to see if that fund is displayed there to ensure it is registered and compliant.

“If the fund isn’t there, then the APRA fund will not activate the rollover,” he said.

Mr Busoli explained that there are a few different reasons why the search on Super Fund Lookup with fail.

“One reason is where there’s a brand new fund and Super Fund Lookup hasn’t been updated. When you have a brand new fund, one of the first things the member wants to do is roll money in from their APRA fund,” he said.

“In the past, we have been able to start a pro forma bank account and then when the ABN and TFN was issued by the ATO and it went onto Super Fund Lookup, which is generally around about 24 hours from that, the member was ready to go.”

However, under the current rules, Mr Busoli said a member cannot complete their bank establishment details until after the ABN and TFN has been issued.

“So that means that even though it's on the Super Fund Lookup, they may not have the bank account in order,” Mr Busoli told CFS head of technical services Craig Day.

“So we have a juxtaposition between the issue of Super Fund Lookup and the commencement of the bank account which has to be sent to the ATO.”

Mr Busoli said late lodgements also create challenges.

“The other issue is that SMSFs are a little tardy about doing their returns. We have about a 98 per cent on time lodgement rate and some of that is in spite of the kickback from trustees, and the 2 per cent that we can't crack are the trustees that [refuse] to perform the small number of of activities that they need to do. These trustees will then decide they want to do a rollover,” he said.

As most SMSF professionals would be aware, Mr Busoli said the ATO will remove the fund from Super Fund Lookup if they have not lodged by the lodgement date or the extended lodgement date that might apply.

“It's then that these trustees then suddenly swing into action and want to get things done quickly. The problem they then have is that we receive the information, it has to go to audit, and it can take a little while before it actually does get lodged,” he explained.

“Then when it is lodged, the ATO won't update that list until the first week of the following month. So if it was lodged, for example, on the first of the month, it's not going to get back on the Super Fund Lookup list for four or five weeks.”