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The Tax Office has written to 3,122 trustees of self managed super funds offering them a new tax file number (TFN) for their funds.

The funds’ existing tax file numbers were on a CD of scanned letters being sent to the Tax Office via an authorised (door to door) courier from the company contracted to print the letters. The courier received the CD but it was not delivered to the Tax Office and has gone missing.

Tax Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said he wanted to assure the community the Tax Office takes the privacy of their personal details very seriously.

“Nothing is more important to the community and fundamental to good tax administration than the security of taxpayer information,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.

“I am concerned that this parcel containing taxpayer information has failed to be delivered, even though the courier believes the parcel is still within their warehouse facilities.

“While there is no evidence the information has fallen into the wrong hands or been misused, I am taking the matter seriously.

“As there is a risk the information could be misused if the courier is unable to locate the CD, we are providing the relevant trustees the opportunity to ensure that there is no unauthorised use of their funds’ relevant tax records.

Tax office Media release 2008/53

ATO second commissioner Jennie Granger has given an ‘early bird’ view of some of the areas that the ATO’s Compliance Program 2008 – 2009 will be addressing, and an overview of the ATO’s tax time focus for individuals and small business. She said:

· for tax time this year, the ATO will be paying particular attention to:

o investors, particularly rental properties, dividends and interest, sale of investments, avoiding dodgy tax schemes, saving for retirement

o salary packages of executives and directors – the ATO will expand its review of highly paid executives and directors, generally people with income over $1 million

o employees and their work expense claims – the ATO will look at the growth in work expense claims particularly by nurses, medical practitioners and chefs

· the ATO will also be expanding its coverage of income tax issues this year. This includes: sale of assets and investments, foreign source income, and employer obligations (including superannuation).

During March the Australian Tax Office will be running seminars for trustees of self managed superannuation funds in regional locations throughout Australia.

They will be covering information that is relevant to SMSFs.

Stephen Hall, Superannuation partner at Thomson Hall recommends that all trustees attend.

Topics covered will include:

• Tax obligations for SMSFs, and
• Recent changes to super and how these changes relate to SMSFs.
• What is a SMSF?
• Trustee obligations
• Investment restrictions
• Contribution and benefit payment rules
• Recent changes to super
• Our compliance program
• Where to go for help

Also, new topics that the ATO will be covering in these seminars include:

• SMSF annual return
• Instalment warrants (which are a way that super funds may borrow money for the purchase of investment assets)
• In-house asset transitional arrangements
• Trust deeds
• Crystallisation calculator
• Benefits calculator

Details of locations, dates and registration information are at the ATO Super website