Issue 763, 6 July 2020
In this issue:
- COVID-19 Coronavirus: APRA—early release of super data request—update
- COVID-19 Coronavirus: revised commencement dates for technical tax and super measures
- COVID-19 Coronavirus: early release of super – APRA data
- COVID-19 Coronavirus: SG treatment of Aged Care Workforce Retention Bonus
- APRA supervisory levy for 2020-21
- Penalty unit value indexed
COVID-19 Coronavirus: APRA—early release of super data request—update
As advised in ASFA Action issue 752, APRA has launched a new data collection to assess the progress and impact of the Government’s temporary early release of superannuation initiative (ERI).
On Friday 3 July APRA sent out details on changes to the ERI data collection (SRF 920.0) to enable assessment of the magnitude of repeat applications and the effect of ERI payments on account closures. The changes include reporting:
- the number of member accounts that have applied for payment for the financial year ending 30 June 2021 where an application had been received for the financial year ending 30 June 2020
- the total number of zero balance accounts due to ERI payments that have been closed since the inception of the scheme on 20 April. It is important to note that the reporting period for this item is the period from inception of the scheme to the reporting date – this differs from all other items on the form where the period is the week ending on the reporting date.
The additional attributes will be introduced via an updated version of reporting form SRF 920.0, starting from the week commencing today, 6 July. The first updated collection, for the week ending Sunday 5 July, is due for lodgment by close of business this Wednesday 8 July.
The extended SRF 920.0 data will continue to be collected via Direct to APRA (D2A), however APRA has released an updated reporting template for reference purposes.
COVID-19 Coronavirus: revised commencement dates for technical tax and super measures
The Government has announced revised start dates for a number of technical tax and superannuation measures announced in the 2019-20 and 2018-19 Budgets, as “a result of the reprioritisation of Government resources and the shortened parliamentary sitting period in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis”.
Of particular relevance to superannuation, these measures include:
- increasing the maximum allowable number of members in self-managed superannuation funds and small APRA funds from four to six. This measure was announced in the 2018-19 Budget with an intended commencement date of 1 July 2019 (see ASFA Action issue 669). It will now commence on Royal Assent of the enabling legislation.
- reducing red tape for superannuation funds by streamlining administrative requirements for calculation of exempt current pension income. This measure was announced in the 2019-20 Budget with an intended commencement date of 1 July 2020 (see ASFA Action issue 703). It will now apply from 1 July 2021.
- removing the capital gains discount at the trust level for Managed Investment Trusts and Attribution MITs. This measure, which will impact superannuation funds as investors, was announced in the 2018-19 Budget with a start date of 1 July 2019, which was amended to 1 July 2020 in the 2018-19 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. It will now apply to income years commencing on or after three months after Royal Assent of the enabling legislation.
The Government has indicated that it is “committed to legislating to implement each of these measures and will continue to progress them for delivery as soon as possible”.
COVID-19 Coronavirus: early release of super – APRA data
APRA has made its tenth weekly publication of industry-level data from its early release initiative data collection.
The data shows that from inception of the early release initiative (20 April) to 28 June:
- payments totalling $18.1 billion had been made, with an average payment of $7,503
- 2.5 million applications had been received, with 2.4 million applications paid
- funds were taking an average of 3.3 business days to pay an application, with 95 per cent of applications paid within five business days.
APRA has also published the ninth tranche of fund-level statistics from its early release data collection, revealing the number and value of the payments processed by each fund, as well as the time taken to make payments.
The ATO commenced accepting applications under the second phase of early release on 1 July. APRA has noted: “Guideline payment processing time for an application made on Wednesday 1 July would be Tuesday 14 July (4 business days processing by the ATO and 5 business days processing by the fund). High volumes may result in delays to this processing time.”
COVID-19 Coronavirus: SG treatment of Aged Care Workforce Retention Bonus
The Government has made regulations exempting payments made under the Aged Care Workforce Retention Bonus program from Superannuation Guarantee (SG) coverage.
As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government announced an Aged Care Workforce Retention Grant (the Grant) to fully fund bonus payments to certain workers to ensure the continuity of the aged care workforce in residential and home care. The Grant is paid to employers on the condition that the monies are used to make bonus payments to their eligible employees.
The Government has now made the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Amendment (Aged Care Retention Bonus) Regulations 2020 to ensure that an employer is not required to make additional superannuation contributions as a result of a bonus payment paid to an employee under the Grant. The Regulations achieve this by exempting payments made to an employee under the Grant from being included in the “salary or wages” that are used to calculate an employer’s SG liability.
APRA supervisory levy for 2020-21
The Government has determined the supervisory levies to be collected from APRA-regulated entities, including superannuation entities, for 2019-20. The levies recover the operational costs of APRA as well as other specific costs incurred by certain Commonwealth agencies and departments. These include:
- some costs for ASIC that are not recouped via its own levy (including funding for the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal)
- the ATO’s costs of administering the lost member and unclaimed superannuation money frameworks and the early release of superannuation
- funding for the Gateway Network Governance Body which governs the SuperStream superannuation transaction network.
This year’s levies reflect changes made to the levy framework via a package of amendments recently passed by Parliament (see ASFA Action issues 760, 755 and 718 for background).
As relevant to APRA-regulated superannuation entities, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Supervisory Levies Determination 2020 imposes the following levy amounts and rates:
Amount of levy | ||||
Entity | Maximum restricted levy amount ($) | Minimum restricted levy amount ($) | Restricted levy percentage | Unrestricted levy percentage |
Pooled superannuation trust | 300,000 | 5,000 | 0.00150 | 0.000907 |
Small APRA fund or single member approved deposit fund | 590 | 590 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Other superannuation entity | 600,000 | 5,000 | 0.00300 | 0.003154 |
Penalty unit value indexed
The value of a penalty unit—used to determine monetary penalties under a range of Commonwealth laws, including superannuation laws—has been indexed from 1 July.
The Notice of Indexation of the Penalty Unit Amount increases the amount of a penalty unit from $210 to $222 for offences committed on or after 1 July 2020.
Under the Crimes Act 1914, penalty unit amounts are indexed against the Consumer Price Index every three years.
ASFA REGULATORY WATCHLIST
ASFA’s Regulatory Watchlist (ARW) tracks developments in Legislation, inquiries, consultations
and other regulatory announcements relevant to superannuation.