Andrea Slattery – CEO – SPAA
The SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) has welcomed the Government’s decision to abandon the proposed Off Market Related Party Transfer amendments that would have imposed inequitable and costly compliance conditions on SMSFs buying or selling assets to or from related parties.
SPAA has been urging the Government to scrap this proposed legislation, arguing that it unfairly singled out SMSFs within the superannuation sector by disadvantaging their trustees because of the increased costs and complexities they would have faced.
SPAA CEO Andrea Slattery says: “We have always advocated a level playing field for all superannuation funds and the retraction of the proposed amendments will help achieve this goal.
“SPAA was especially concerned about increased costs for SMSFs transferring listed securities from a related party into the SMSF and is pleased to see that SMSF trustees will not be faced with increased costs.
“The proposed legislation also removed the existing requirement that an SMSF must intentionally acquire an asset from a related party in order to fall foul of the law. This could have seen more SMSF trustees penalised by the legislation where they have made an unintentional mistake.
“The need for qualified independent valuations was also a concern. The simple fact is that for some collectables it is difficult to find valuers and professional advisors who have the specific knowledge, experience and judgement to make a decision.”
SPAA was pleased that the Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury noted that “the concerns the measure is seeking to address are not as pressing as they were at the time of the [Super System] review.”
Ms Slattery says: “SPAA remains committed to working with governments to strengthen the integrity of the SMSF sector and continues to propose use of best practice operating standards that, if adopted by Government, would alleviate any concerns around off-market transfers across the superannuation industry.”
