SMSF’s are regulated by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The ATO as 'Regulator' requires super fund trustees appoint an approved auditor to audit their fund each year. An approved auditor must be a registered company auditor or a member of certain professional organisations such as CPA Australia. We follow professional auditing standards which require the audit to be conducted independently.
Before the annual audit, you or your SMSF accountant must prepare information about your accounts and transactions for the previous income year. This information is then sent to the approved auditor. The ATO requires the approved auditor to effectively conduct two audits, namely to:
You must have an auditor’s report before you lodge your fund’s SMSF annual return. To meet this deadline you need to allow enough time for us to conduct the audit.
We will provide you with a letter of engagement confirming we accept the appointment and advising you of the scope of the audit.
We will conduct an audit of your DIY fund’s financial statements together with a regulatory audit to assess your overall compliance with the super laws. In most cases, this can be achieved by you sending us a copy of your SMSF trust deed along with your financial statements and original accounting records. We will request any further documentation that we need so that we can complete the audit of your fund. (You do have a legal obligation to give us any such further information requested.)
When we have finished your fund’s audit, we will provide you with
Once you have our auditor’s report you can then lodge your fund’s SMSF annual return. You also need to understand that we are bound by law to notify the ATO if we have concerns about your fund’s financial position or we find you’ve breached any of the super laws. Naturally, we will tell you if we have any such concerns.
A proper audit takes time! And if the auditor gets it wrong, you as the trustee are still liable.
An auditor is required to ensure that your transactions are allowed by the terms of your fund's trust deed and by the SIS Act and regulations. This generally means carefully reading your fund's trust deed clause by clause and ensuring that it complies with current legislation. A reasonable sample of your transactions needs to be checked to see that they have been recorded correctly and sometimes the auditor will need to confirm ownership of assets by checking title deeds or contacting your bank or broker. (Refer ATO Audit requirements.)
If you have made an error and a cursory audit fails to find it, you as the trustee are still liable. Penalties are severe. The SIS Act allows the Tax Office to suspend or remove a trustee or all the trustees of a self managed fund. The fund can be declared non-complying and suffer serious tax consequences such as being taxed at the highest marginal rate. Other administrative penalties may also apply.
DON'T RISK IT! Our SMSF audits are personally conducted by qualified Certified Practising Accountants who have attended the required CPA Australia training for super fund auditors. Our audits are not carried out by poorly trained or inadequately supervised clerical staff. Our fees are fair and reasonable for doing the work that actually needs to be done.
