Why you could pocket up to $6,000 from Friday

Why you could get a cash injection soon. Source: Getty

Thousands of Australians are set to receive a surprise cash injection from the Australian Taxation Office at the end of the week when it dishes out ‘lost’ superannuation.

From Friday 1 November, 485,000 Aussies will receive a slice of $473 million – and they won’t need to lift a finger.

"Under new powers, the ATO has identified 485,000 existing ATO-held unclaimed super accounts containing a combined $473 million that will be returned to their owners’ active super account," a tax office spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.

• Also read: 485,000 Australians are about to share $473 million

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If the amount in the super account is less than $200, or the recipient is aged over 65 years, the ATO will credit that amount straight into your bank account.

And I repeat: you don’t need to do anything.

“The balance of your inactive low-balance account will be transferred to us by your fund and, where possible, we will proactively consolidate it into an active super account on your behalf,” the ATO stated.

The new rules mean superannuation accounts are automatically transferred to the ATO if they’ve been inactive for 16 months, or have a balance below $6,000.

Is my account an inactive low-balance account?

Superannuation accounts will be defined as inactive if:

• No amount has been received by the fund as a credit or benefit within the last 16 months;

• The account balance is less than $6,000;

• The account is not a defined benefit account;

• There is no insurance on the account; or

• The account is not held in a self-managed super fund or small APRA account.

But, it won’t be defined as a low-balance inactive account if:

• You have changed your investment options;

• You have made changes to your insurance coverage; or

• You have made a written declaration that it is not a low-balance inactive account.

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