Baumgartner Super at the NTAA’s Tax Hot Spots

For the first time in a couple of years, we attended the NTAA’s Hot Spot Seminars around Australia in an exhibitor capacity. With the biggest changes our industry has seen since 2007 coming into effect from 1 July 2017, we felt that it was important to get out there and speak to the attendees to gauge how accountants and financial planners alike are tackling the changes, and to of course offer our assistance where we can.

Our expectation of well attended seminars was correct as most were sold out with new dates required for Sydney and Melbourne to cope with the demand.

Over the course of the seminar series we chatted with many people and the overriding theme was how busy accountants currently are with no respite expected until after 30 June.  Many of them have invested lots of time on the new super rules and are slowly working through their client base to ensure plans are put in place for those who need to make structural changes by 30 June. This has meant many accountants are behind where they would like to be with their compliance program with some already contacting the ATO to request lodgement extensions.

Other issues of interest:

  • Accountants are still grappling with the loss of the accountants’ exemption with many still determining how to best deliver the necessary financial product advice to their clients.
  • We were asked on numerous occasions about the valuation requirements for 30 June 2017 (more on that below).
  • There was discussion concerning how the ATO would want debits and credits to an individual’s Transfer Balance Account reported to them and how long before we would have true real-time reporting.

If you have anything you wish to discuss please do not hesitate to contact us on 1300 04 SMSF or info@baumgartnersuper.com.au .