Why does the auditor need that?

Advisers and trustees often feel that the level of audit scrutiny is excessive and it’s true to say that it has become more “annoying” over the last year. There is a reason for this. The ATO have tightened their approach to SMSF compliance and have placed...

SMSF Related Party Unit Acquisition Nuances

I often field questions concerning the SMSF acquisition of unit trust units from a related party. Whether such acquisitions can occur depends on the scenario. If the unit trust is widely held, typically a managed fund, the acquisition can occur. Note that this is not...

SMSFs Established for the Wrong Reasons

Recently, ASIC investigated the SMSF establishment compliance for 100 funds sourced from 12 advice licensees that they believed were high risk. They reported that 62 failed to comply with the best interests duty while 27 files raised concerns about client detriment....

36 Cents Revisited

I previously mentioned an intriguing case where the 3 year NCC bring forward had been triggered by an ATO auto truncation of a personal concessional contribution containing 36 cents. In the 2024 year, a member received employer contributions of $6,576.64 and made...