SMSF COVID-19 relief measures have now ceased

The ATO has reminded trustees of self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) that COVID-19 relief measures that previously applied for the 2019–2020, 2020–2021 and 2021–2022 income years no longer apply from 1 July 2022. The relief measures covered a wide range of areas, including residency requirements, rental reductions and waivers, rental deferrals, in-house assets, loan repayments, limit recourse borrowing arrangements, and related party transactions.

Until 30 June 2022, individuals who became stranded overseas due to COVID-19 and so were out of Australia for more than two years could rely on the SMSF residency relief. This meant the ATO wouldn’t take compliance action to determine whether a particular SMSF met the residency test, provided there were no other changes in the SMSF or member/trustee circumstances. Since this relief no longer applies, SMSFs may risk failing to meet some of the residency conditions to be an Australian super fund for tax purposes, which may see it lose its complying super fund status and associated tax concessions.

One of the other prominent relief measures now ended is rental relief provided to related parties. The ATO had confirmed that no compliance action would be taken and no auditor contraventions needed to be reported for rental reductions and waivers to related parties, provided they were on commercial terms, relief was due to COVID, and the arrangement was property documented. Again, now that the rental relief has ended, if an SMSF provides rental reductions or waivers to related parties, it may give rise to a reportable contravention of the super laws.

Similarly, the relief measures relating to loan repayment relief provided by an SMSF and SMSF limited recourse borrowing arrangements relief no longer apply. Therefore, from 1 July 2022, approved SMSF auditors must report contraventions via the auditor/actuary contravention report. Before that happens, SMSF trustees are encouraged to use the ATO’s voluntary disclosure service to report any identified contraventions and plan to rectify the contravention as soon as possible. Voluntary disclosures will be taken into account when determining what action the ATO will take.