Government to defer proposed SMSF residency changes
The government has announced it will defer the start date for the proposed changes to the SMSF residency requirements to allow sufficient time for the measure to be legislated.
In the Federal Budget handed down tonight, the government has shed light on its plans for a number of legacy tax and superannuation measures that were announced but not legislated by the previous government.
The papers stated that the government will defer the start dates for a number of tax and superannuation measures to allow sufficient time for policies to be legislated and implemented.
A measure from the 2021-22 Budget that proposed relaxing the residency requirements for SMSFs from 1 July 2022 has been delayed to the income year commencing on or after the date of Royal Asset of the enabling legislation.
The measure, if implemented, would extend the safe harbour for the central control and management test from two to five years for SMSFs, and remove the active member test.
The SMSF industry has long pushed for the residency rules for SMSFs to be simplified.
SuperGuardian education manager Tim Miller previously told SMSF Adviser that the active member test was always disproportionately unfair to SMSFs, versus APRA funds, as it required at least 50 per cent of all active (contributing) members to be resident members.
“There are other requirements attached to the central management and control test, but this increase would give greater certainty to a large portion of funds who were otherwise borderline, that they will satisfy the requirements,” said Mr Miller when the measure was first announced.
The government has also ruled out implementing a proposal by the previous government to introduce a three year audit cycle for certain SMSFs with a clean compliance record.
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.
