The AAT has held that no special circumstances existed to warrant granting a taxpayer’s request that the Commissioner exercise his discretion to allocate excess super contributions to another year.
The taxpayer had contributed over $678,000 into his superannuation funds over a 3-year period when the statutory limit was $450,000. The Commissioner said the taxpayer must now pay tax at 46.5% on the excess contributions.
The taxpayer was a self-employed person and contributed money and shares to his super fund which exceeded the relevant contribution caps. He said he misunderstood the rules and would not have made the excess contributions if he had understood the true position. The taxpayer also argued the misunderstanding was effectively induced by erroneous advice he received during phone calls he had with ATO officers in 2010 and 2011.
The Tribunal said it was not persuaded the taxpayer made the excess contributions as a result of advice he received from the Commissioner’s officers. It said the complexity of the superannuation rules and the taxpayer’s commitments as a carer did not, in its view, amount to special circumstances. The Tribunal also found that exercising the discretion would not be consistent with the objectives of Div 292 of the ITAA 1997. The Commissioner’s objection decision was therefore affirmed.
(AAT Case [2014] AATA 411, Re Sisley and FCT, AAT, McCabe SM, AAT Ref: 2013/1787, 24 June 2014.)
[LTN 121, 26/6/14]