When you receive a contribution or report an event, you should determine what type it is to ensure you report it correctly.
How you classify the contribution in your reporting will depend on:
- where the contribution has come from or how the event originated
- the information provided by the contributor at the time of the contribution or event
- the decisions you make about how it will be treated by you.
When you accept a contribution, you need to collect information that will help you to correctly determine what type of contribution it is. Generally, you should be able to answer the following questions for each contribution:
- Who is the contribution for?
- Who made the contribution?
- What is the contributor's relationship with the member for whom the contribution was made (that is, are they the member themselves, the member's employer, the member's spouse or another third party, such as other family and friends)?
- What was the purpose of the contribution?
- Did the contributor provide a valid notice of election to treat the contribution in a particular way?
Use the information you collect, the Member Account Transaction Service business implementation guide (MATS BIG)External Link and this protocol to help you correctly classify and report contributions and events. An explanation of each field, which adds to and supports the explanations given in the MATS BIG, is provided in this protocol.
We use the contributions information you and other providers report to us, as well as deduction information from your members’ tax returns, to determine which contributions are:
- eligible personal contributions – so we can determine super co-contribution entitlement and eligibility for deductions or schemes, for example, First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSS)
- concessional contributions – so we can determine low income super amount entitlements for the financial year, and assess member tax liabilities in relation to the concessional contributions cap and Division 293
- non-concessional contributions – so we can assess member tax liabilities and eligibility for deductions or schemes.