Top five requests for SMSFs & superannuation

In the lead-up to the 2022-23 Federal Budget, RSM’s National Director of superannuation and SMSF services, Katie Timms, shares her wishlist for SMSFs and superannuation.

1. Less Complexity on Transfer Balance Cap

The SMSF changes from 1 July 2017 streamlined a lot of the complexity relating to the administration of pensions and SMSFs with one standard Transfer Balance Cap. Unfortunately, this complexity has started to creep back in, with a transfer balance cap that falls back to ‘it depends’ territory. Letting everyone have access to a new cap when it indexes will give advisers and members certainty and transparency (especially when it isn’t easy to access the information if you aren’t a tax agent!).

2. Less Complexity on Total Superannuation Balance

While many prior year budget changes have been positive to allow people to use unused caps, it has led to us trying to manage multiple different total superannuation balance caps and different rules. Maybe having fewer would lead to fewer inadvertent errors.

3. Remove payment to exit

Why it costs a SMSF auditor to voluntarily deregister is mind-boggling. At a time when some auditors are being encouraged to retire as things become more and more complex, it seems bizarre to charge them a fee to do so. When you hear comments that it is better to be disqualified to save the fee, you know something is wrong with the policy.

4. Accommodate minor Trust Mistakes

The strong outcomes from making a very minor mistake in a controlled unit trust can lead to horrendous results for an SMSF – a classic ‘the sentence doesn’t fit the crime!’. Allowing trustees some leeway to rectify small mistakes would bring this section back to a far fairer proposition. 

5. More support to those facing domestic violence

This is a tricky one, but the dropped changes to allow access to super in domestic violence situations should be revisited. Initially, my reaction to this was ‘but super is for the future’, and then I realised this was an incredibly privileged thought process. Sometimes allowing support in times of urgent need will allow people to live a far better future.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION on the federal budget

Please contact your local RSM office to speak to a business advisor, or register here for our 2022-23 Federal Budget Webinar.