Rollovers
What you need to know about self-managed super fund (SMSF) rollovers.
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What is an SMSF rollover?
A rollover is when you, as a member, transfer some or all your existing super between funds. You need to use SuperStream for rollovers (other than in-specie rollovers) to or from your SMSF.
Receiving a rollover
When you initiate a rollover into your SMSF, the transferring fund uses the SMSF verification service to verify you are a member and the fund's details are correct.
To check your SMSF membership, look at the fund details screen on ATO Online. You need to make sure all fund details are up-to-date in our systems and notify us of any changes.
When the transferring fund uses the SMSF verification service, you will receive an email or text message alert. If you receive an alert and you're aware of the rollover, you don't need to do anything. If you're not aware of the rollover, you need to contact the transferring fund immediately as rollovers are processed within 3 days.
To receive a rollover, your SMSF needs to have:
- a complying or registered status on Super Fund Lookup
- an active electronic service address (ESA) registered for rollover services
- an Australian business number
- up-to-date details recorded with us, including your SMSF's unique bank account for super payments.
Note: If there is a mismatch between the transferring fund information provided and the data we hold, there may be difficulties in receiving a rollover.
To check if your ESA provider offers SuperStream rollovers or if you need an ESA provider, use the register of SMSF messaging providers.
Processing the rollover
The transferring fund must ensure the payment and associated message are sent to you within 3 business days of receiving all the required information. They may request additional details from you to confirm the request is not fraudulent.
If the transferring fund suspects illegal activity, they will report it to us, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and any relevant law enforcement agencies.
It is the receiving fund's responsibility to:
- confirm the payment and associated data has been received within 3 business days
- allocate the rollover amount to your member's account within 3 business days of receiving the payment and associated details.
Depending on your software solution, you may be required to alert your SMSF messaging provider that the rollover has been completed. After you check the bank account and allocate the benefits, you can direct your provider to send an outcome response message.
Making a rollover
Follow these steps to roll your benefits out of the SMSF to another super fund:
- Validate your TFN with the SMSFmemberTICK system.
- When you're rolling over to another SMSF, verify the fund and member details using the SMSF verification service.
- When you're rolling over to an APRA-regulated fund, verify the fund details using the Fund Validation Service.
- Make the rollover via SuperStream no later than 3 business days after receiving all the information required to process the request (unless you received an exemption from us to use a paper rollover form).
If it is a death benefit rollover and the recipient is a dependent child beneficiary, you also need to complete the death benefit rollover statement. Send this to the receiving fund as soon as possible. See more about SuperStream death benefit rollovers.
The SMSFmemberTICK system provides an invalid response if:
- the ATO or transferring fund holds an incorrect name or date of birth
- the TFN has a compromised or duplicate status on our systems
- our data matching system cannot establish a single match.
In these instances, you may need to update your details. Do this by either:
How to minimise delays when making a rollover
To help prevent issues with rollovers, ensure all fund and member details are correct. Check the following:
- The SMSF details provided to the transferring fund match the details held by us.
- Your details, such as a surname, held by the transferring fund match those of the receiving fund. Sometimes these need to be updated with the transferring fund before requesting a rollover.
- Whether your financial institution has a daily limit on the amount that can be transferred. This may impact the amount being rolled out. You need to confirm this with your financial institution before initiating the rollover. Then determine if you need to
- increase the transfer limit with them
- change the rollover amount to below your limit and repeat as required
- change to a different financial institution.
The transferring fund may request further information such as proof of identity (POI) documents and bank account details for fraud prevention reasons. If they do, they must request this information within 5 business days of receiving your request. They must then complete that rollover within 3 business days of receiving the information.
When transferring super from an APRA fund to an SMSF, contact your APRA fund to discuss your specific POI requirements. Submit the documents in a timely manner. Do not submit multiple rollover requests when there is a delay.
When rolling out of your SMSF, ensure the payment reference number (PRN) on the message and payment match. Send the message and payment to the receiving fund at the same time where possible.
For more on making a rollover, see SuperStream rollovers and release authorities for SMSFs.
Note: Each rollover message must be linked to a single payment. You cannot send multiple part payments for the one rollover message.
Correcting a mistake
If you have made a mistake with the rollover payment, you need to contact the receiving fund to resolve.
Reporting a rollover
A rollover from another fund is not included in the assessable income of your fund unless the rollover amount includes an untaxed element in the fund.
If it does contain an untaxed element, you need to include the amount of that element in the assessable income of your fund – up to the untaxed plan cap amount – in the financial year in which the rollover occurs.
If the untaxed element exceeds the untaxed plan cap, the originating fund should withhold tax (at the top marginal rate plus Medicare levy) from the amount over the cap before releasing the rollover to your fund. You can then add this now-taxed amount to the tax-free component of the rolled-over amount.
Example: rollover with an untaxed element
On 5 September 2019, Tom asks his fund to roll over his super interest of $1.7 million. This is an untaxed element.
The untaxed plan cap amount for 2019–20 is $1.515 million, meaning that Tom's rollover amount exceeds the cap by $185,000. The originating fund must withhold tax of $90,650 (49% of $185,000).
The amounts reported by the originating fund on the rollover benefits statement will be $94,350 ($185,000 − $90,650) at the tax-free component label and $1.515 million at the element untaxed in the fund label.
Tom's SMSF will report the $1.515 million as income at the personal contributions label in the SMSF annual return.
End of exampleEnsure you report all member contributions in your SMSF annual return, even if they were rolled out to another fund later. This is different to the process that applied before 1 July 2013.
Transfer balance cap reporting and rollovers
We strongly encourage you to report the rollover as a commutation via the TBAR where the member rolls the amount into an APRA-regulated fund and starts an income stream there as soon as the rollover occurs.
If you do not report the rollover to us when it happens, double-counting of your member’s income streams may occur.
See how to report SMSF contributions that you roll over and event-based reporting for SMSFs.
What you need to know about self-managed super fund (SMSF) rollovers.