The ATO has previously indicated that where SMSF practitioners or trustees need to correct the information that has been reported to the ATO in a TBAR, they will need to cancel that TBAR and then lodge a new TBAR with the correct information.
It has also stressed the importance of making sure that the information provided in the cancellation form matches the information that was originally provided in the TBAR, so that the ATO can match the events.
BGL Corporate Solutions product manager Anthony Fernandez explained that where SMSF professionals switch administration software providers or take on a new client from a firm that used a different type of software, sometimes issues can arise with this process.
“For example, let’s say you’re using one particular type of SMSF administration software and you’ve reported a pension or the start of the pension, and it was erroneously reported and you now need to lodge a cancellation for it,” said Mr Fernandez in a recent SMSF Adviser webcast.
“When the original pension was lodged or reported, it used the member code and the identifier that was generated within that software. Now when you lodge the cancellation, you do it within the new software which is using a new member code and member identifier, so the ATO won’t be able to match it with the event that was originally lodged.”
Mr Fernandez said this means that SMSF professionals and their clients need to be careful and ensure that the cancellation is lodged using the same member code and identifier for that original event.
“Hopefully, the software that you’re using can accommodate for that,” he said.
The ATO need to make the forms available online. No two ways about it. Their rules are so strict, but they are asking service providers/professionals to operate blind in many instances.
What’s worse is if they change accountants. There is no way to access a copy of the TBAR lodged in order to reverse/cancel it correctly.
The ato can’t even process them correctly when given the correct information. About 5% of the TBARS we have lodged have been recorded incorrectly by the ato and we have had to call to get them corrected.
TBARs are just a world of headaches.
Headaches is right. We can’t even see what we have lodged. IF we are the tax agent for the member, we can see the TBC but that doesn’t give sufficient details to be able to amend easily.