Responses
When you submit a MAAS form to open, update or close a member account you will receive one of the following responses from our service:
Matched response
A 'matched' response confirms the TFN data you hold is correct and is a notice under section 299TD of SISA or section 143D of the RSAA, provided the minimum requirements are met.
The Commissioner may give you a TFN validation notice under section 299TD of the SISA or section 143D of the RSAA if you give the Commissioner information you believe to be either the:
- full name, TFN and date of birth of a person
- full name, TFN and date of birth and address of a person.
Note: Although our systems may accept a message with a reduced data set, section 299TD of the SISA or section 143D of the RSAA provides the legal requirements for a TFN validation message to receive a valid section 299TD or 143D notice from the Commissioner.
If a TFN has not been quoted for superannuation purposes (by another person) and has not been supplied in the MAAS, it will not be returned in our response. A matched response in this instance does not equate to a TFN validation notice.
Matched and corrected response
If you provide a TFN in the MAAS message, and the response is a corrected TFN, this is a notice under section 299TA of the SISA or section 143A of the RSAA.
If a corrected TFN is included in the response, privacy regulations do not permit you to provide the TFN to an employer.
If a TFN is not supplied in the MAAS and a TFN is returned, it is a notice under section 299TC of SISA or section 143C of the RSAA, meaning the member has provided this TFN for superannuation purposes previously.
If we have provided you with a TFN via a matched and corrected MAAS response, there is no requirement to report the updated TFN as a further MAAS update. Once the TFN number has been verified by your member, update your records with the TFN supplied. However, if the member confirms the original TFN is correct, you should lodge a request using the Super Enquiry Service.
When you submit a further MAAS update, you can include the correct TFN. Penalties may apply if you continue to use the incorrect TFN.
There are some circumstances where we do not return the TFN, and the TFN field is left blank e.g. when reporting an account closure, and the matching results in a correct TFN, the matching outcome will not be included in the response.
Unmatched
A response of ‘unmatched’ means we were unable to match the member details provided to our records with an appropriate level of confidence. In these instances, while we will hold a record of the lodgment against the superannuation provider, the account will not have been associated to the member within our systems. This means that your member will not see these details on ATO online services.
We may have been unable to match the member details for the following reasons:
- your member has provided you with incorrect details
- the records we hold are incorrect
- the TFN has a compromised or duplicate status on our systems
- our data matching system cannot establish a single match.
While an unmatched response from the MAAS is not always a 'Please resolve' notice, the MAAS message is unmatched against the member in the ATO client register.
When a MAAS open account is not properly matched to a member in the ATO client register, other MATS interactions will fail to be matched to the member.
Where you have provided a TFN in your message and subsequently receive an unmatched response you will need to determine whether the unmatched response should be treated as a 'Please resolve' notice and take reasonable steps to rectify the unmatched response as discussed in 'Your obligations to address errors and unmatched responses'.