Highlights

  • The ATO will send APRA-regulated funds Division 296 reporting requests in two waves, starting in November 2027 and April 2028.
  • Funds receive requests through Online Services for Business and have 28 calendar days to respond once a request arrives.
  • Defined benefit interests and income streams without an account balance will be valued under a method set out in regulations.
  • SMSF trustees follow a separate path, with a cost-base reset election form the ATO has not yet released.

Imagine a member of a large industry fund on 1 July 2026, the day the new tax on large super balances began. Their balance ticks along, their fund goes about its business, and nothing about Division 296 lands in their inbox. That quiet is built into the timetable. The ATO's guidance shows the first reporting requests for 2026–27 will not go out until November 2027, and most funds will wait until April 2028. Anyone planning around the tax is looking at a long runway.

What the ATO has published

The ATO has a newsroom page for APRA-regulated funds titled "Division 296: the latest for APRA super funds", last updated on 24 September 2026. It sets out how and when large funds will report.

Each fund will receive a request for information, or RFI, through Online Services for Business, and will then have 28 calendar days to respond. This is administrative guidance, not legislation, and the RFI's electronic reporting specification is still open for consultation.

The two reporting waves

RFIs for the 2026–27 year will go out in two waves. The first starts in November 2027 and covers defined benefit interests that are not in retirement phase, along with other interests not based on an account balance.

The second starts in April 2028 and covers all other non-SMSF funds, which takes in the ordinary accumulation accounts held by most members of large industry and retail funds. Most reporting for the first Division 296 year is therefore expected about 10 months after it ends on 30 June 2027.

Defined benefit interests and income streams without an account balance are harder to value. At 30 June 2027 they will be valued using a method set out in the regulations, not by reference to the transfer balance account.

A related fix is only a proposal. Treasury's exposure draft of minor and technical amendments would correct the Division 296 super valuation rules from 1 July 2026, but Parliament has not passed it.

A hypothetical timetable

Meet Maria, 64, who has a defined benefit pension with no account balance, and her husband Tom, who holds a large accumulation account in a retail fund.

Maria's fund sits in the first wave. If it received its RFI on Monday 1 November 2027, the 28-calendar-day window would close on Monday 29 November 2027. Tom's fund sits in the second wave. An RFI arriving on Monday 3 April 2028 would be due back by Monday 1 May 2028.

These dates are illustrative. The ATO has given start months, not issue dates for individual funds, and any assessment would follow only after the fund has reported.

SMSFs take another road

SMSFs sit outside the APRA RFI process. ATO statistics show 680,301 of them at the end of the June 2026 quarter, holding an estimated $1.107 trillion.

Their early decision is the cost-base reset election. Jemma Sanderson of Cooper Partners told The Tax Institute's National Superannuation Conference on 22 October that trustees will keep the election in the fund's own records, not send it to the ATO, though auditors are likely to want a copy. The ATO had not released the form at that date.

Why the wait matters

Much of the detail is still in draft. The ATO expects to publish draft Law Companion Rulings on total super balance and "relevant earnings" in December 2026, and says draft public advice and guidance will follow for consultation "later in 2026". Draft rulings can change before they are finalised.

For members, the delay opens a gap between earning income in 2026–27 and seeing any Division 296 liability. Later assessments generally carry the usual review and objection rights.