6 SMSF tips for the new financial year

A new financial year always brings a new “to do” list. With one month over already, we’ve put together a list of 6 tips that are easily forgotten.

Tip 1: Pensions often start early in the financial year. Don’t forget that if the member made personal contributions in 2020/21, the relevant notices about the deduction must be dealt with before the pension starts (a “Notice of Intent to claim or vary a deduction for personal super contributions” and the relevant acknowledgement from the trustee). In fact, if the pension started on 1 July 2021 it’s already too late to give this notice to the fund – the deduction will be denied. 

A related issue – also think about these notices when a lump sum is going to be paid from an account that received personal contributions in 2020/21. If a lump sum is paid before the notices are given, the deduction is reduced. 

Tip 2: If a member is going to use the “contribution splitting” rules to transfer some of their concessional contributions in 2020/21 across to their spouse, get this done as early as possible. It means these contributions will be earning income in the spouse’s name rather than the account of the original contributor. And don’t forget, if the contributions being “split” are personal contributions, the notices mentioned in Tip 1 need to be dealt with first. 

Tip 3: Some people with more than one job can be in danger of exceeding their concessional contributions cap even if they never receive more than the minimum Superannuation Guarantee amount from each employer. Remember that these people can now “opt out” of Superannuation Guarantee contributions if they meet certain conditions. One of these conditions is that the relevant forms must be lodged at least 60 days before the first quarter to which it applies. Clients who’ve not already made an election can do so for the second and remaining quarters of this year as long as they do so on or before 2 August 2021.

 Tip 4: Remember that the minimum pension amounts for 2021/22 are still only 50% of the usual levels. Clients who need the full normal minimum pension to meet their income needs could consider treating the excess over the minimum as a lump sum payment from their accumulation account or a partial commutation from their pension account. The best way to achieve this is to have documentation in place now – before the minimum pension payments are met – that request the trustee to treat the payments this way. This makes it abundantly clear to auditors and the ATO that all decisions about how to treat payments were made prospectively rather than backdated after the event. This is exactly one of the moments when Tip 1 becomes crucial – if the payment ends up being a lump sum from the member’s accumulation account it will be vital that the notices about tax deductions for personal contributions have already been given to the trustee for the 2020/21 contributions.

 Tip 5: Get the fund’s assets revalued now – before the auditor asks you to. This is particularly relevant for funds with assets such as property where values can change during the year. A current market value will be needed for the 30 June 2021 financial statements and it’s much easier to get that as close as possible to the applicable date. Asking an agent (or trying to find your own external evidence) to value your residential unit as at 30 June 2021 when it’s already (say) April 2022 just makes the job harder than it needs to be.  And don’t forget the same rules apply to properties held within any unlisted companies or unit trusts in which the fund invests. Similarly, check things like lease agreements to see if rental payments made by the fund should be increased in line with CPI – the earlier this is dealt with the better. 

Tip 6: SMSFs owning bullion or similar assets will be familiar with the difficulties in proving to the fund’s auditor the existence of the asset at 30 June, particularly where it is stored in a private vault or deposit box with a bank. Often the auditor will ask for a photo of the bullion on top of a newspaper showing the date. Getting this evidence documented now will make the year end audit a lot simpler.

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