Tax office to return money from inactive super accounts in November

Check your bank accounts, Australia – because from today onwards, you might wake up to find a handy cash injection has landed.

Cash payments will begin landing in millions of Aussie bank and super accounts from today as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) starts to reunite people with their lost money.

Until the end of the month, an estimated 2.6 million Australians could score an unexpected gift from the ATO.

The payments, which will either be sent to eligible people’s regular bank accounts or their active superannuation accounts, are the result of recent changes to superannuation law.

In a nutshell, the changes mean people with inactive super accounts with balances of less than $6000 can now have that balance automatically transferred by the ATO into their current super account.

RELATED: Tax cheat on ‘$0 income’ busted
RELATED: Millions of Aussies to score cash payouts

However, if the balance is less than $200, that sum will be sent to their bank account — and if a person is aged over 65, the cash will be sent to their bank account regardless of the total.

The law change means people with multiple super accounts they may have forgotten about, such as those who have started new jobs who were automatically signed up to a default fund without realising it, will no longer lose out on their hard-earned money.

And the best part? If you’re in line for the payment, you don’t have to do a thing to claim it.

The cash will automatically be sent to you by the ATO, and you will be notified after the payment has been made.

It’s a significant shake-up of the industry because, until now, Aussies had to apply directly to the ATO to access their unclaimed super before it could be released.

Payments will vary from $40 to ‘tens of thousands of dollars’. Picture: iStock

Earlier this week, Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) deputy chief executive officer Glen McCrea told news.com.au the amount of money set to be transferred back into people’s accounts could vary from small amounts of “$40 or $50” up to “tens of thousands of dollars”.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to engage with any lost or unclaimed super that individual members may have — after all, it’s your money,” Mr McCrea said.

“ASFA has long advocated the ATO reuniting amounts it holds in cases where it has details of an active account held by an individual. While individuals were always able to contact the ATO and claim their lost super, only a small proportion of accounts were reunited. Many individuals were not aware that they had lost super or did not know how to claim it.

“The ATO now has the power and duty to proactively reunite lost super with the individuals that own it without the need for any application to be made.

“The ATO holds some quite large super balances as a result of balances being transferred from funds in cases where the fund has determined they never will be in a position to pay out a benefit to the account holder because they have lost contact with them.”

WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM?

The money in question is “ATO-held super”, which includes amounts paid by employers, super funds, retirement savings accounts providers or the Government on your behalf.

Generally speaking, super money can be transferred to the ATO from providers if it is unclaimed super for members aged 65 years or older, non-member spouses and deceased members, small lost member accounts and insoluble lost member accounts, inactive low-balance accounts or super for temporary residents who have left Australia for six months or more, according to the ATO website.

As of June 30 this year, the ATO held about five million accounts worth $3.9 billion.

The welcome transfers are the result of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Protecting Your Superannuation Package) Act 2019, which means super providers are now required to report and pay accounts with a balance of less than $6000 to the ATO.