The ATO said SMSFs are required to lodge a TBAR by 28 April if a transfer balance account (TBA) event occurred in a member’s SMSF between 1 January and 31 March 2021, and any member of the SMSF has a total super balance greater than $1 million.

“If a TBA event occurred but none of your SMSF members have a total super balance over $1 million, you do not need to report by this date,” the ATO said.

“You do not need to lodge a report if no TBA event occurred.”

The ATO also noted different reporting deadlines will also apply in the following circumstances.

“[If] any of your members exceeded their transfer balance cap (TBC), we have sent your member/s an excess transfer balance determination and your member commutes the excess,” the ATO said.

“Your SMSF must then report the commutation to us no later than 10 business days after the end of the month in which it occurred, or we have sent the SMSF a commutation authority. In this case, the SMSF must comply with the commutation authority and report this to us within 60 days.

“If we have issued your SMSF a determination or commutation authority which relies on reporting which is incorrect or incomplete, you must correct or complete the reporting as soon as possible.

“Lodging online or electronically is the quickest and easiest way to complete your TBAR.”

Further, SMSFs need to be aware that a member’s TBA is a record of all the credits and debits which count towards their personal TBC, according to the ATO. 

“The balance of the member’s transfer balance account at the end of a day is used to determine if they have exceeded their personal TBC, and they will be entitled to proportional indexation of their personal TBC on 1 July 2021,” the ATO said.

“The most common events you need to report are when a member starts a retirement phase income stream, or commutes that income stream into a lump sum, including when they commute that pension before rolling it over to a new fund.

“Delays in reporting TBA events to the ATO may mean a member is in excess of their personal TBC for longer and will pay more excess transfer balance tax, and we will not be able to correctly calculate your member’s personal TBC from 1 July 2021.”