Just when you thought it was safe to take a breather following 1 July, there are some other statutory changes and refinements to keep you busy for the rest of this year.
Decide whether to accept TFNs from former members
Where no-TFN tax has been paid, and a beneficiary subsequently quotes his or her TFN to the fund, the fund must apply for a tax offset to recover the no-TFN tax and must then reimburse the member for tax deducted from his or her account or benefits. This will be problematic where the member has left the scheme, leaving the scheme with the administrative burden of tracing former members and/or large amounts of unallocated tax offset amounts.
While the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS)1 allows a beneficiary (or an applicant to become a beneficiary) of a superannuation fund to quote his or her TFN to a trustee in connection with the operation of the Act, there is no express (and in our view no implied) obligation on the trustee to accept that