Questions & Answers – Transfer Balance Account Report (TBAR)

From 01 July 2017, the Government introduced a lifetime limit on the total amount of superannuation benefits that you can transfer into a tax-free Retirement Phase Pension Income Stream. This limit is known as the Transfer Balance Cap (TBC).

The general Transfer Balance Cap for a given Financial Year is as follows:

For more information on the Transfer Balance Cap, please click here.

Due to the Transfer Balance Cap measure, the ATO has imposed a new reporting obligation on SMSF Trustees so as to record and track the movements in the member’s Transfer Balance Account and apply provisions should the member breach the Transfer Balance Cap (TBC). This new event-based reporting framework is called the Transfer Balance Account Report (TBAR). It is a separate form from the SMSF Annual Return.

The General Transfer Balance Cap was indexed to $1.7 million from 1 July 2021. Your entitlement to indexation will be determined by the proportionate method which measures the percentage of unused cap in your Transfer Balance Account. After the indexation, there won't be a single cap that applies to all individuals. Every individual will have their own Personal Transfer Balance Cap, depending on their circumstances.

The ATO will calculate your entitlement to indexation and your Personal Transfer Balance Cap after indexation. You can view your Personal Transfer Balance Cap using the ATO online services through myGov. Alternatively you may contact the ATO on 13 10 20 directly to obtain this information.

If your SMSF has a member who is accessing a Retirement Phase Pension Income Stream, you will be required to comply with the new Transfer Balance Account Report (TBAR) framework.

The following types of Pension Income Streams are considered as Retirement Phase Pension Income Streams:

• Simple Account Based Pension (SABP), including Death Benefit Pensions;
• Capped Defined Benefit Income Streams;
• Transition to Retirement Income Stream / Pension (TRIS) AND the member has reached 65 years old or declared retirement with ESUPERFUND or has a permanent incapacity or terminal illness.

Accumulation, and Transition to Retirement Income Stream / Pension (TRIS) where the member is under 65 and still working are NOT in the Retirement Phase and therefore are not required to comply with the Transfer Balance Account Report (TBAR) Framework.

The reporting frequency under the TBAR Framework is generally determined by the Total Superannuation Balances (TSB) of all members of your SMSF.

If your SMSF is required to report TBAR on a quarterly basis, you need to report events to the ATO within 28 days after the end of the quarter in which the event occurs.

If your SMSF is required to report TBAR on an annual basis, you need to report events to the ATO by the due date for lodging the SMSF's Annual Return for the Financial Year in which the event occurs.

To determine the reporting frequency of your SMSF, please visit our website here.

Yes. We are pleased to advise that ESUPERFUND attends to the preparation and submission of the TBAR on your behalf at no additional cost.

No. ESUPERFUND only attends to TBAR for Retirement Phase Income Streams established by us. If you have a Pension with another Superfund, please contact them directly.

If your SMSF is required to report TBAR on a quarterly basis, you will receive a reminder from ESUPERFUND via the Client Portal Inbox in the first week of every quarter. The reminder will detail the information required by our office.

If your SMSF is required to report TBAR on an annual basis, ESUPERFUND will lodge TBAR automatically after your Fund’s Annual Return for the previous Financial Year has been completed. No information is required separately unless you have been contacted by the ATO to remove an excess from your Transfer Balance Account.

If you have been contacted by the ATO to remove an excess from your Transfer Balance Account (e.g. you have been issued an Excess Transfer Balance Determination / Commutation Authority), you should contact ESUPERFUND via the Client Portal Inbox at your earliest convenience.

In order to collect information from you, please click here to visit the Client Portal – TBAR page. On that page, you can view the TBAR events that are already known to ESUPERFUND. If there are additional reportable events (see examples below), please click to provide the information.

Listed below are the most common events that need to be reported under the TBAR Framework and whether information is required from you:

We advise that lump sum withdrawals cannot be used to meet the minimum pension requirement of your Pension.

If you intend to withdraw only the minimum pension amount during the Financial Year, the amount withdrawn must be treated as a pension withdrawal. Pension withdrawals are not required to be reported under TBAR.

If your withdrawals exceed the minimum pension amount during the Financial Year, you may treat the excess as either pension withdrawals or lump sum withdrawals. The differences between these two withdrawal types are explained on our website here. Lump sum withdrawals made from a Retirement Phase Pension are required to be reported under TBAR.

If you have no reportable events (e.g. there are no lump sum withdrawals / rollovers to another Superfund and you have never exceeded the Transfer Balance Cap), then you can disregard the reminder. You do not need to notify ESUPERFUND / the ATO if there are no events to report.

If based on ESUPERFUND’s available data, your SMSF must lodge TBAR quarterly, the frequency has been set to “Quarterly” and you cannot change the reporting frequency.

Otherwise, “Annually” is selected as the default option for your SMSF. If you accidentally changed the frequency to “Quarterly” by mistake, please contact ESUPERFUND via the Client Portal Inbox.

If you have already reported any events to the ATO by yourself, please contact ESUPERFUND via the Client Portal Inbox immediately and advise the value you reported. We will then contact the ATO to cancel the event reported by ESUPERFUND to avoid double reporting.

Please allow for at least 28 business days for the ATO to update the information in their system. After this period, you can view your Transfer Balance Account Balance using the ATO online services through myGov or contact the ATO on 13 10 20 directly.