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Mid-tier firm BDO is finding rounding errors with some accounting software which is adding small amounts to clients’ superannuation transfer balance accounts.
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Rounding error spied in super software
26 June 2018
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Typically, these errors are nominal amounts — like a couple of dollars — but this can be a pain point for clients who are sailing close to the $1.6 million cap.
Although he wouldn’t name names, BDO superannuation partner Paul Rafton’s findings suggest accountants should be on the lookout, particularly where errors push their clients over the cap.
“When clients do that commutation to the $1.6 million, some of the software we're finding is coming up with $1,600,002 for whatever reason. It's some kind of rounding error,” explained Mr Rafton.
“It's a bit of a quirky one. I don't think its a material issue, more of a nuisance factor but whether that triggers anything in the ATO systems when those balances are reported in the TBAR will be interesting.”
Mr Rafton said it’s unclear at this stage whether this would be automatic trigger for the ATO or whether they would apply common sense and recognise that its not a material amount and clearly a rounding issue.
A spate of superannuation reforms, triggered by the 2016 federal budget, have created several compliance headaches for accountants and software vendors alike.
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Recently, survey results in an e-book released by Smarter SMSF indicate that out of 168 survey respondents, only 54 per cent of practitioners had access to the client data required for completing transfer balance cap reporting in a timely fashion.
Event-based reporting will kick in from 1 July this year for some funds, which you can read more about here.
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