Fam­i­ly Law | Draft law puts the spot­light on super

Super­an­nu­a­tion is in the Fam­i­ly Law spot­light with the announce­ment of a new infor­ma­tion-shar­ing pro­pos­al involv­ing the Aus­tralian Tax Office (ATO).

New Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment leg­is­la­tion, if passed, will allow a par­ty to Fam­i­ly Court pro­ceed­ings to apply to the Court for access to ATO infor­ma­tion about a for­mer part­ner’s super­an­nu­a­tion inter­ests. It would autho­rise the ATO to dis­close super­an­nu­a­tion infor­ma­tion to Court Reg­istry staff.

The new infor­ma­tion-shar­ing process is designed to make it hard­er for par­ties to hide or under-dis­close their super­an­nu­a­tion assets in Fam­i­ly Law pro­ceed­ings. It is hoped that it will also reduce the time, cost and com­plex­i­ty for par­ties seek­ing accu­rate super­an­nu­a­tion information. 

The Gov­ern­ment is invit­ing feed­back on the draft leg­is­la­tion which is avail­able on the Fed­er­al Trea­sury web­site at: https://​trea​sury​.gov​.au/​c​o​n​s​u​l​t​a​t​i​o​n​/​c​2​0​2​1​-​1​77055

If you are con­sid­er­ing a Fam­i­ly Law prop­er­ty set­tle­ment involv­ing super­an­nu­a­tion, please con­tact the Fam­i­ly Law team at Swaab to dis­cuss your legal rights and 

respon­si­bil­i­ties.