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Notice of intent to claim a deduction

Members can claim or vary a tax deduction for personal super contributions.

Last updated 30 June 2020

To help your members claim or vary a tax deduction for personal super contributions, you should:

Accepting notices

Validity

If a notice is invalid you must not accept it and should advise your member their notice is invalid. A notice will be invalid if any of the following apply:

  • it is not related to the contribution
  • it includes all or a part of an amount covered by a previous notice

when the member gave you the notice they were not a member of the fund or holder of the retirement savings account (RSA)

  • when the member gave you the notice  
    • you no longer held the contribution
    • you had begun to pay a super income stream based in whole or part on the contribution
     
  • before the member gave you the notice  
    • they had made a contributions-splitting application in relation to the contribution, and
    • you had received the application and not rejected it.
     

A notice can cover only personal contributions. The following are not personal contributions:

  • rolled over super benefits
  • benefits transferred from a foreign super fund
  • a directed termination payment paid by an employer (under transitional arrangements that applied until 30 June 2012)
  • salary-sacrificed amounts.

Approved form

Ensure your members have used an approved form to provide the notice. An approved form is one of the following:

If a paper notice does not contain all the required information, or a virtual form was not developed in accordance with the guide, the member will not be providing a notice in the approved form and may later be denied an income tax deduction.

Variations

Only accept variations that reduce the amount of the deduction to be claimed (including reducing it to nil).

A variation is not effective if:

  • the person is no longer a member of the fund
  • the fund no longer holds the contribution
  • the fund has begun paying an income stream based in whole or part on the contribution.

The member can vary their notice of intent to claim a deduction using any of the methods for providing a notice. If they are writing a letter to you, they need to include the same information as in their original notice, plus a statement that they wish to vary their previous notice to reduce the amount claimed. They must also specify the amount they now intend to claim (which may be nil).

The member should also have signed a declaration that they are giving this variation within the relevant timeframe.

If a member wants to increase the amount they are going to claim as a tax deduction, they must lodge a separate notice of intent to claim a deduction for the additional amount. This will be a new notice rather than a variation.

Deadlines

A member must give you their notice (or variation) by whichever of the following dates occurs first

  • the day they lodge their income tax return for the income year in which the contribution was made
  • the end of the income year following the income year in which the contribution was made.

Note that the above deadline does not apply where we have disallowed a member's deduction and a variation is being made to reduce the amount claimed by the amount not allowable.

As you may not be aware of the specific date by which each member must give you their notice, the member is required to sign a declaration to say that they have given you the notice (or variation) within the relevant time frame.

A valid notice of intent cannot be revoked or withdrawn but the member may vary the notice to reduce (even to nil) the amount they want to claim. They must do this within the timeframe set out above.

If we disallow a deduction your member has claimed, the member may vary the notice to reduce their claim by that amount. This variation is not subject to the above timeframes.

Always advise your members of the reasons for rejecting their notices and of any actions they can take to lodge valid ones. This may reduce the frequency of escalated complaints.

Acknowledging notices

You’re required to acknowledge your member's valid notice, without delay, unless the value of the relevant super interest, on the day you receive the notice, is less than the tax that would be payable by you for the contribution if you were to acknowledge the notice.

You should also advise your member if their notice is invalid.

To avoid disadvantaging your members, your acknowledgment should include:

  • a clear statement that you have received their notice of intent to claim a deduction
  • the date
    • your fund received the original notice
    • your fund received any subsequent variations
    • of the acknowledgment
     
  • the member's account and fund details
  • the total amount of personal contributions that the original notice covers and, of those, the amount the member currently intends to claim as a deduction
  • the date the contributions were made or the income year they were made in.

This information will ensure that your members are able to claim the deductions they are entitled to, and that the correct super co-contributions and excess contributions tax outcomes apply to them.

Additional requests for acknowledgment

If your members have lost or failed to receive your acknowledgment they may request a new acknowledgment. You can either:

  • provide them with a copy of the original acknowledgment
  • confirm their original notice is valid and provide them with a new acknowledgment.

Reporting of a notice of intent to claim a deduction

You are required to notify us of certain details pertaining to a member's notice of intent that has been received and acknowledged as valid by you. These details, and the specifications regarding how they should be reported, are contained in the Member Account Transaction Service (MATS) Business Implementation Guide.

See also:

QC45248