The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will be making visits to a select number of superannuation advisers throughout March and April in order to get a better affinity with the sector and the emerging issues and trends within it.
The visits will be conducted by ATO superannuation assistant commissioner Stuart Forsyth and ATO aggressive tax planning assistant commissioner Stefan Kovic.
"We want to meet with advisers and understand first-hand what issues are affecting advisers and trustees of SMSFs (self-managed superannuation funds)," Kovic said.
"It's about being on the front foot when it comes to emerging issues and developing strategies to address them."
The findings from the visits will be made available to the whole industry.
Currently breaches of the rules governing loans to members and in-house assets are the most prevalent compliance issues for SMSFs.
In addition, the tax office has noticed an increase in re-reporting of contributions as a result of pre-assessment letters or assessments. In particular, the re-reporting seems to have been done to inappropriately avoid incurring any excess contribution liabilities.
Specific client issues will not be raised during the regulator's visits.
"While we are interested in learning more about these risks, we also want to hear from the advisers about any other current issues or hot spots affecting the SMSF industry," Kovic said.
The same exercise was conducted in December 2009 when the ATO visited 27 superannuation advisers across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
"The response we got from the 2009 visits was overwhelmingly positive. Advisers appreciated sharing their issues with us and we were able to learn more about the industry by listening to their concerns," Forsyth said.
