The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (‘AAT’) has held that there were no special circumstances in relation to a taxpayer who made excess concessional contributions in a financial year, such that the ATO could allocate some of those contributions to the previous financial year.

On Wednesday, 26 June 2019, the taxpayer arranged for contributions totalling just under $25,000 to be made to his superannuation fund, via a direct debit from his bank account to a clearing house used by his fund. 

However, the relevant contribution was received by the superannuation fund on Monday 1 July 2019. The taxpayer then made further contributions totalling just under $25,000 to his superannuation fund on 5 August 2019, which meant that he had made excess concessional contributions for the 2020 financial year.

The AAT confirmed the ATO’s decision that the circumstances did not justify some or all of the contributions made by the taxpayer on 26 June 2019 being reallocated to the 2019 financial year. That is, there were no ‘special circumstances’ (as required by the relevant legislation) that would justify the exercise of the ATO’s discretion to allocate the contributions to the previous financial year. 

While the AAT accepted that the taxpayer genuinely intended that his contribution would be received by his superannuation fund by 30 June 2019, he should not have waited until 26 June 2019 to make the contribution, as “there was nothing unusual about the time taken to process the ... payment made on 26 June 2019.”

Also, in relation to various events and actions of other parties that the taxpayer submitted constituted ‘special circumstances’, the AAT noted that “an error on the part of a third party will not on its own amount to special circumstances.” 

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