Two bodies representing industry super funds have raised concerns about the uncertainties around who is covered by the Tax Agent Services Act (TASA).
The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) and the Industry Super Network (ISN) lodged a joint submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) last Friday, calling for a change in wording to ensure the provision of intra-fund advice is not impacted.
AIST and ISN requested the ‘advice' be replaced with ‘personal financial product advice', which would exclude intra-fund advice from the requirements contained in TASA.
The two industry fund bodies are worried that ‘advice' is not limited to financial product advice and may include general strategies.
"It is in this context that AIST and ISN do not believe that the limitation to services that are charged for as proposed in subsection 50-5(2A)(c) is restrictive enough," the submission read.
"Professionals who provide [intra-fund advice] services are a broad group and can include call centre operators, business development officers, member education personnel and others who would not ordinarily be considered to fall under the category of financial planners, as originally conceived."
The two bodies stated almost every discussion held with members would involve tax in one way or another and would thus constitute tax advice under the Act.
It is for this reason that AIST and ISN believe that the wording should be changed.
"Furthermore, AIST and ISN recommend that ‘personal financial product advice' have the same meaning as that contained at section 766B of the Corporations Act," the submission read.
The submission has also called for clear disclosure as to who would be responsible for the tax advice provided. It also raised questions about how the TASA regime would work in relation to the advisers' best interest duty required under the Future of Financial Advice reforms package.
Michael Lovett, who left the investment firm just three months after launching its Vanguard Super offering, has taken up a chief executive role at an Australian asset manager.
The Central Bank of Ireland has granted the approval of Equity Trustees’ exit from its Irish operations, with the transaction expected to be complete on 30 April.
Super returns continued to climb in March, raising hopes of delivering double-digit returns by June depending on the performance of this next quarter.
The dedicated super fund for emergency services and Victorian government employees is under fire for unpaid entitlements to transport employees, which could exceed $40 million.
Add new comment