The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has announced that it is closing the Superannuation Holding Accounts Special Account (SHAR).
Deputy commissioner for taxation Mark Jackson has told an Institute of Chartered Accountants Country Conference that the SHAR would be closed to employer deposits after June 30.
He said a small number of employers currently paid superannuation contributions to this account to meet their superannuation guarantee obligations and it would be important for these people to make alternative arrangements well before the cut-off date so they did not inadvertently incur the superannuation guarantee charge.
Jackson also expressed concern at continuing incidences of people seeking early access to superannuation and said that to address this the ATO had commenced 1,200 audits on cases that involved early access to superannuation.
“To give you an idea of the amount of benefits accessed illegally, so far we’ve found around 80 cases where there has been about $750,000 in tax shortfall,” he said. “On average, this is around $9,000 per trustee.”
