The ATO is being vested with a substantial amount of powers where it comes to dealing with non-compliance on the part of super fund owners. A piece on the website of Australian Taxation Office sheds light on them.
For errant SMSF trustees
If you are a super fund trustee and are contravening existing compliance laws for SMSFs, you can be halted on your tracks by the ATO which is tightening controls and enforcements. Come July 2014 and the ATO can impose administrative penalties along with education and rectification directions on erring trustees.
The article contests that already, since March 18 2014, a set of civil and criminal penalties can be legally imposed on individuals who are nefariously extracting fund from SMSF deposits.
You can read the original article here.
Directions
The above mentioned penalties and directions, in my opinion, are to be taken lightly by the super fund trustees at their own financial peril. For instance, failure to rectify a contravention within pre-stipulated timeframe (rectification direction) can attract a penalty of $1,700. The same will be true for education direction.
Administrative penalties
Based on the particulars of contravention (of the Superannuation Industry), administrative penalties can range from $850 to $10,200. To reiterate, the penalties cannot, at any rate, be taken lightly.
