With upcoming annual lodgement dates for Transfer Balance Account Reporting (TBAR), the ATO is alerting funds of common lodgement mistakes that could lead to delays and additional processing time.

The Transfer Balance Cap (TBC) is a $1.6 million cap on the total amount of superannuation benefits that a member can transfer into a tax-free retirement phase income stream. TBAR is used by SMSF trustees to report to the ATO any events that affect a member’s transfer balance. The information is used to record and track the member’s TBC and apply provisions if the member were to breach the cap.

Reports can be lodged both online or by paper forms. The electronic method is recommended by the ATO as human errors are common when using the paper form to report. These issues are often a failure to provide the fund’s ABN and failing to report the event type. When these errors occur, the form will be suspended for manual review and the ATO may need to contact funds in some cases to resolve any issues.

When an SMSF practitioner is reporting multiple events, they must specify the type for each different case. When an event has been reported incorrectly, it must be cancelled before reporting the correct information. This is because the ATO’s system for TBAR treats each report as a new event, and not one that overrides another. Once the event has been cancelled, it will no longer display in the member’s transfer balance account details.

A TBAR must be lodged for the 2018-19 financial year if any member had a transfer balance account event occur in the last year, and if all members have a total super balance of $1 million. The due date for annual TBAR reporting is the same date as the SMSF annual return on 15 May 2019, although not all funds have the same lodgement due date. Trustees should familiarise themselves with their SMSF’s due dates and ensure they are reporting the correct information to avoid processing delays.