Issue
Can the 'superannuation contributions surcharge' that is payable under an assessment made under subsection 15(1) of Superannuation Contributions Tax (Assessment and Collection) Act 1997 (the SCT Act), be reduced to nil following a change to the member's adjusted taxable income (ATI) for the financial year?
Decision
Yes. The surcharge payable is reduced to nil when the original assessment is amended under subsection 19(3) of the SCT Act after amended surchargeable contributions details are reported by the superannuation provider and the member's ATI when recalculated, is less than the surcharge threshold for the financial year.
Facts
Two providers reported surchargeable contributions in respect of the member for the financial year. Based on the total surchargeable contributions as reported, the Commissioner calculated the member's ATI to be above the surcharge threshold and issued assessments to the providers as holders of the member's surchargeable contributions for the financial year. Following the making of the assessments, one of the providers subsequently sent amended contributions details to advise that they had over-stated the amount of surchargeable contributions for the member for the financial year.
Reasons for Decision
The assessments were amended under subsection 19(3)of the SCT Act to take into account the change in the member's contributions details as advised by the provider. As the member's ATI when recalculated was below the surcharge threshold for the financial year, no surcharge was payable in accordance with subsection 7(2) of the SCT Act and the surcharge payable under the original assessments reduced to nil.