Issue 806, 25 May 2021
In this issue:
- Proposed financial institutions supervisory levies
- Exempt current pension income: streamlining administrative requirements
- 2021-22 Budget: legacy retirement product clarification
- APRA Super Data Transformation: FAQs
Proposed financial institutions supervisory levies: consultation
Treasury has issued a discussion paper seeking submissions on the proposed financial institutions supervisory levies that will apply for the 2021-22 financial year.
The financial institutions supervisory levies are set to recover the operational costs of APRA and other specific costs incurred by certain Commonwealth agencies and departments, including the ATO.
If you have any feedback on issues you would like ASFA to consider in relation to the proposed levies, please forward it to Andrew Craston by close of business, Friday 4 June.
Exempt current pension income: streamlining administrative requirements
Treasury is consulting on proposed amendments to streamline the administrative requirements in relation to calculation of exempt current pension income (ECPI) by
superannuation funds.
As part of its 2019-20 Budget, the Government announced that it would reduce costs and simplify reporting for superannuation funds by streamlining some administrative requirements for the calculation of ECPI.
Treasury has now released a package of draft legislative amendments:
- providing choice for superannuation fund trustees to use their preferred method of calculating ECPI, where the fund is fully in the retirement phase for part of the income year, but not for the entire income year
- removing a redundant requirement for superannuation funds to obtain an actuarial certificate when calculating ECPI, where the fund is fully in the retirement phase for all of the income year.
If you have any feedback on issues you would like ASFA to consider in relation to the consultation package, please forward it to Julia Stannard by close of business,
Wednesday 9 June.
2021-22 Budget: legacy retirement product clarification
As reported in ASFA Action issue 803, the 2021-22 Budget included a measure described as ‘Self-managed Superannuation Funds – legacy retirement product conversions’.
The Budget papers indicated that this measure would “allow individuals to exit a specified range of legacy retirement products, together with any associated reserves, for a two-year period”. The specified products were stated to include “market linked, life-expectancy and lifetime products, but not flexi-pension products or a lifetime product in a large APRA-regulated or public sector defined benefit scheme”.
Treasury has provided ASFA with a clarification in relation to this measure. In particular, Treasury has confirmed that:
- despite the description used in the Budget papers, the measure is not limited to self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) and will extend to non-SMSF products
- products covered by the measure are market-linked, life-expectancy and lifetime products which were first commenced prior to 20 September 2007 from any provider, including SMSFs
- products not covered by the measure are flexi-pension products offered by any provider, and lifetime products offered by large APRA-regulated defined benefit schemes or public superannuation sector defined benefit schemes.
This is distinct from a separate Budget measure which establishes an industry working group to develop and consult on the design of a streamlined mechanism to facilitate the transfer of policyholders from closed life insurance products and managed investment scheme products to new products.
APRA Super Data Transformation: FAQs
As reported in recent ASFA Actions, APRA recently finalised ten reporting standards under phase 1 of its Superannuation Data Transformation project. APRA has been publishing frequently asked questions (FAQs) for registrable superannuation entity (RSE) licensees ahead of the first submission of data under the standards on 30 September.
APRA has now published a third set of FAQs on the phase 1 standards, as well as some worked examples.
ASFA REGULATORY WATCHLIST
ASFA’s Regulatory Watchlist (ARW) tracks developments in Legislation, inquiries, consultations
and other regulatory announcements relevant to superannuation.
