Newsletter
July 2016 Newsletter
ATO to make new decision on superannuation death benefit
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has ordered the Commissioner to request that a couple make an application for another private ruling in relation to a life insurance payout they received after the death of their adult son.
In 2013, the couple’s’ son died in a motorbike accident. He was employed as a pilot and up to the time of his death had lived at home with his parents. As administrators of their son’s estate, the couple received a lump sum payment of $500,000 under their son’s life insurance policy, which was part of his employer’s super scheme.
The couple applied for a private ruling that the $500,000 was a superannuation lump sum that was not assessable under the tax law. The Commissioner issued a private ruling to each taxpayer ruling that they were not death benefit dependants.
Although the AAT held that the Commissioner’s ruling was correct, it noted the couple had provided “additional information” asserting they had a close personal relationship with their son. The AAT said that had the Commissioner been provided with that information earlier, he would have asked the couple to make an application for another private ruling.
Accordingly, the AAT ordered the Commissioner to request that the couple make another private ruling application.