Welcome to the latest issue of the KHQ Super Alert. This week AUSTRAC released additional guidance for the industry in relation to strengthening AML/CTF programs. New materials for data reporting to the ATO and APRA were also released, as well as an article from the ATO about the closure of ERFs and the introduction of ‘trustee voluntary payments’. We wish you a happy and safe Easter weekend.
Legislation – Data reporting for ATO release authorities
On 29 March 2021, the Superannuation Data and Payment Standards (Release Authorities, and SMSF Rollovers) Amendment 2021 was registered on the Federal Register of Legislation. This Instrument amends the Superannuation Data and Payment Standards 2012 to require (amongst other things) that trustees of APRA-regulated funds ‘comply with the Superannuation Data and Payment Standards 2012 … in relation to release authorities issued on or after 31 March 2021 by the [ATO] under Division 131 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953’.
Click here for details.
ATO – Information for the closure of ERFs and introduction of trustee voluntary payments
On 29 March 2021, the ATO issued a news update for APRA-regulated funds. Titled ‘Eligible Rollover Funds and Trustee Voluntary Payments’, the article discusses how the new requirements under the recently passed Treasury Laws Amendment (Reuniting More Superannuation) Act 2021 will apply to trustees. For example, the article explains the new interim reporting approach that the ATO has put in place in relation to ‘trustee voluntary payments’ under the new legislation.
Click here for details.
Treasury – Further consultation for modernising business registers program
On 29 March 2021, Treasury released a consultation paper in relation to its Modernising Business Registers Program. This paper relates to the ‘transitional periods that directors will have to apply for a director ID during the early stages of the director ID regime’. According to Treasury, it is proposed that directors will have ‘the period between the end of testing and 30 November 2022 to obtain a director ID’.
This follows on from the draft data standard and disclosure framework released earlier in March (as referred to in our Super Alert of 19 March 2021).
Click here for details.
AUSTRAC – Release of new AML/CTF Guides
On 29 March 2021, AUSTRAC released five new guides to help reporting entities ‘review and strengthen’ their AML/CTF programs. Three of the five guides which will be useful for superannuation trustees relate to:
- ‘Governance: board and senior management oversight’;
- ‘Money laundering/terrorism financing risk assessments’; and
- ‘Ongoing customer due diligence’.
On the same day, AUSTRAC also released updated resources to assist with customer identification procedures and ongoing customer due diligence.
Click here and here for details.
APRA – Additional materials for data reporting on APRA Connect
On 26 March 2021, APRA released ‘draft technical information and supporting material relating to superannuation taxonomies to help superannuation entities prepare data for submission on APRA Connect’. This includes ‘the data dictionary, validations, reporting taxonomy and XSD’. APRA has advised that final versions of the documents ‘will be available before the external test environment is released to entities in June 2021’.
Click here for details.
Legislation – Repeal of portfolio holdings disclosure relief
On 19 March 2021, the ASIC Corporations (Amendment and Repeal) Instrument 2020/921 was repealed on the Federal Register of Legislation. The instrument had amended ASIC Class Order [CO 14/443] to extend ‘the relief in ASIC Class Order [CO 14/443] from portfolio holdings disclosure (PHD) requirements in subsection 1017BB(1) of the Corporations Act’.
The portfolio holdings disclosure obligations in section 1017BB of the Corporations Act require most RSEs licensees to publish information about their fund’s portfolio holdings on the fund’s website. Due to the repeal of this instrument, it seems that the first reporting period will commence on 1 January 2022, however no further information has been provided by ASIC at this stage.
Click here for details.
