The federal budget will allocate nearly $80 million to regulators, including the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and ASIC, to implement aspects of the Stronger Super reforms.
The ATO would be provided with $40.2 million and ASIC granted $8.4 million from fiscal 2011 to 2015 to implement the Stronger Super self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) reforms, Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten said yesterday.
APRA would be given $26.2 million and ASIC another $3.6 million over 2011/12 to 2014/15 to implement the MySuper aspects of Stronger Super, budget documents showed.
The Stronger Super SMSF reforms announced in December include the introduction of a new administrative penalty framework, registration of fund auditors subject to competency and independence standards, improved data collection and improvements to the SMSF registration process.
“These reforms will boost government and public confidence in the SMSF sector through the introduction of a range of measures to improve the operation, efficiency and integrity of the largest sector in the superannuation system,” Shorten said.
The increased funding would be fully offset by raising the annual SMSF supervisory levy to $180 from $150, with effect from fiscal 2011, and by the collection of fund auditor fees, he said.
Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals’ Association of Australia chief executive Andrea Slattery said the association was pleased it was only a minimal increase.
“There was some suggestion this levy would be increased significantly because of all the changes to the reporting rules for the ATO and changes to enforcement powers and the policing of auditors and those sorts of things,” Slattery said.
“So we were pleased it was only a minimal increase of just $30, so in the end the levy only goes up to $180 per annum.”
Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia head of super Liz Westover said the increase was reasonable.
“We were expecting it to go up in line with all the changes that are going on, so probably $30 is reasonable,” Westover said.
But Chan & Naylor director Ken Raiss said it was concerning how much the charge had increased in the past several years.
“We have got to go back to 2007/08 when the supervisory levy was $45, it then went to $150 and now it’s going up another 20 per cent to $180. The issue is not so much the current 20 per cent increase, it’s the 400 per cent increase over the last four years,” Raiss said.
