The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services on Tue 19.3.2013 released its report into the Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Reform of Self Managed Superannuation Funds Supervisory Levy Arrangements) Bill 2013. The majority of the Committee recommended that the Bill be passed.
The Bill, which is currently before the House of Reps, proposes to increase the maximum amount of SMSF supervisory levy from $200 to $300 from 1 July 2013 (although the actual levy amount will continue to be prescribed in the relevant regulations). The Bill also provides for the levy to be collected in the same income year that it is levied from 2013-14 (subject to a phase-in over 2 years). The Committee noted that SMSFs will be required to pay $321 in 2013-14, $388 in 2014-15 and $259pa from 2015-16. [Note: the amount being collected will go down.]
The Tax Office also told the Committee there was no intention to change the current process of collecting the levy through the SMSF tax return. That is, there no proposal to invoice the levy separately, “it will just be as part of the tax return”, an ATO officer told the Committee. The Tax Office also advised the Committee that it will prepare and publish a cost recovery impact statement prior to the levy increase on 1 July 2013.
[FJM Note: There is a sub-text here, which is that the ‘levy’ must bear some relationship to the costs of monitoring these funds, or else it will be a ‘tax’ and quite possibly invalidly legislated.]
[LTN 54, 20/3/13]
SMSF supervisory levy Bill passes Reps
The Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Reform of Self Managed Superannuation Funds Supervisory Levy Arrangements) Bill 2013 was on Thur 21.3.2013, passed by the House of Reps without amendment and now moves to the Senate. The Bill proposes to increase the maximum amount of SMSF supervisory levy from $200 to $300 from 1 July 2013 (although the actual levy amount will continue to be prescribed in the relevant regulations). The Bill also provides for the levy to be collected in the same income year that it is levied from 2013-14 (subject to a phase-in over 2 years).
[LTN 21/3/13]