The AAT has upheld an excess contributions tax assessments after ruling that there were no “special circumstances” to reallocate excess concessional contributions made late via a clearing house.
The husband and wife taxpayers are directors and employees of an electrical services company. On 27 June 2008, the wife, as the company’s bookkeeper, processed a superannuation contribution payment via a clearing house system operated by an accounting software provider. The amounts of $42,000 and $46,000 were received by the nominated super funds of the husband and wife, respectively, on 3 and 4 July 2008. Further contributions for the husband and wife were made by cheque during the 2008-09 financial year.
The Commissioner issued the husband with an excess contributions tax (ECT) assessment of id=”mce_marker”1,970 for exceeding his $50,000 concessional contributions cap by $38,000 for the 2009 year. The wife received an ECT assessment of id=”mce_marker”2,573 for exceeding her concessional cap by $39,915.
In upholding the ECT assessments, the AAT held that the relevant superannuation contributions had been “made” in the 2009 year. While some of the amounts were processed electronically via the clearing house in late June 2008, the amounts were not “received” by the superannuation fund until July 2008.
The AAT agreed with the Commissioner that the taxpayer’s circumstances were not “special circumstances” pursuant to s 292-465(3)(a) of the ITAA 1997. The AAT said that the member contribution statements should have put the taxpayers on notice that the payments had been recorded against the financial year in which they were received by their super fund. The AAT also noted the product disclosure statement (PDS) for the clearing house system explained that the payment would be held for 3 business days before the payment would be made to the nominated super funds.
(AAT Case [2014] AATA 877, Re Hope and FCT, AAT, Ref Nos 2013/6722 and 6723, Forgie DP, 26 November 2014.)
[LTN 231, 28/11/14]