The time it takes Australian managed funds to issue their end-of-year tax statements fell slightly in 2005/06, with only 6 per cent of the 638 funds on the Ausmaq hub taking longer than eight weeks, down from 14 per cent the year before.
However, the time it takes to consolidate this tax information has not fallen for those who have transactional relationships with a multitude of funds – platforms and custodians -because the template for tax reporting built by IFSA and the Australian Tax Office was not universally followed, according to Ausmaq chief executive Rob Brown. Ausmaq has developed a tax component reporting service to attempt to cut down this consolidation time, at least for a significant portion of its clients managed fund holdings. “The consolidation of year end tax data is particularly problematic. For starters, statements are issued over an extended period from July through to September,”; he said. “;It’s also complex. This year, there are 37 tax categories on the standard [IFSA/ATO]distribution statement. Not every manager uses the standard, so mapping across statements is needed. Worse still, statements are typically hardcopy, so re-keying is necessary. Accordingly, there are many potential sources of error.” Brown said Taxstreme provided comparison data, at individual managed fund level, of standard tax component proportions. “;That is, the proportion of the total distribution represented by a specific income, capital gain or tax credit component. Taxstreme information allows an administrator to check the end result of their own tax component processing against an independent data source,”; Brown said.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has recently released its draft guide on sustainability collaboration, but investors, businesses, and other groups have politely – and not so politely – told the competition watchdog that its principles need to be more flexible and accommodating.
Russell BakerSeptember 17, 2024
