Superannuation funds have been told to expect more interaction with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) as both it and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) further bed down the SuperStream regime.
Both the ATO and APRA issued a letter to superannuation fund this week in which they outlined the responsibilities of trustees and compliance with the associated systems changes required by the new system.
The letter said the ATO, in consultation with APRA, was leading the change process with industry to ensure all sending and receiving solutions were ready for the change, or had appropriate mitigation in place to manage any delays.
“RSE licensees should now be undertaking steps to ensure they will be ready for the change by reviewing the readiness checklist,” the letter said.
“Readiness reporting will commence on April 2016, with RSE licenses required to advise the ATO of key implementation dates by 30 April, 2016.
It said that contributions standard was scheduled for a major version upgrade in April 2017 to introduce the payment of ATO-sourced contributions, refunds and amendments, and to incorporate improvements recommended by the industry.
It said this upgrade was originally scheduled to align with the introduction of Single Touch Payroll changes foreshadowed by the Government and noted that the ATO would be consulting further with industry over coming months regarding timing in light of later implementation dates recently announced by the Government.
