Questions & Answers - SMSF Compliance

Your SMSF must attend to certain annual reporting requirements each and every year. These include:

The above annual compliance requirements are the compliance requirements that an SMSF must attend to annually. Importantly ESUPERFUND attends to the above annual compliance requirements for your SMSF. You do not need to arrange for another accountant to prepare the above annual documentation as it is completed by ESUPERFUND.

Yes. ESUPERFUND attends to the annual compliance requirements for your SMSF. You do not need to arrange for another Accountant to prepare any annual documentation as it is completed by ESUPERFUND.

As a client of ESUPERFUND you are not required to provide source documentation relating to most of your SMSF Investments. That is ESUPERFUND receives electronic confirmation of all your Bank Transactions and Broker trades your SMSF makes using the Bank and Broker established by ESUPERFUND, so no records are required from you each year about these Investments as we already have access to them. Importantly the information we receive is only electronic transaction data and we have absolutely no access to your Accounts. Only you as the SMSF Trustee can login and transact on the Accounts. At financial year end you will be required to provide information to ESUPERFUND to attend to the SMSF annual compliance requirements. This includes rollover documentation, contribution details, share contracts, dividend and managed fund distribution statements and so on. To guide you on the information required, ESUPERFUND will send you an annual checklist by 30 September of each year to ascertain the investments your SMSF has invested in and what additional information we require. Where applicable we will request certain information to be provided to finalise your SMSF annual compliance requirements. The Annual Compliance Checklist is typically sent by 30 September each year and should be returned at your earliest convenience to give us sufficient time to prepare and lodge the annual compliance documentation by the due date.

For more information on the process to prepare the annual compliance requirements for your SMSF, please click here.

The Annual Compliance Checklist is typically sent by 30 September each year. At financial year end you will be required to provide information to ESUPERFUND to attend to the SMSF annual compliance requirements. This includes rollover documentation, contribution details, share contracts, dividend and managed fund distribution statements and so on. To guide you on the information required, ESUPERFUND will send you an annual checklist to ascertain the investments your SMSF has invested in and what additional information we require. Where applicable we will request certain information to be provided to finalise your SMSF annual compliance requirements.

The Annual Compliance Checklist is typically sent to you by 30 September each year. Once you have reviewed the annual checklist, you will need to collate the additional information and documentation requested (if any). Once collated the information will need to be submitted to ESUPERFUND. Checklist completion is the first step of your SMSF’s Annual Compliance process. It is noted that in the first year your SMSF is setup the SMSF must lodge its Tax Return by 28 February following the end of the Financial Year. In the second year and future years the SMSF must lodge its Tax Return by 15 May following the end of the Financial Year. Accordingly you should complete and submit the Annual Checklist at your earliest convenience to give us sufficient time to prepare and lodge the annual compliance documentation by the due date.

It is noted that the first year your SMSF is setup, the SMSF must lodge its Tax Return by 28 February following the end of the Financial Year. In the second year and future years the SMSF must lodge its Tax Return by 15 May following the end of the Financial Year. Accordingly the Annual Checklist should be provided to our office at your earliest convenience to give us sufficient time to prepare and lodge the annual compliance documentation by the due date. It should be noted that the client's annual compliance work is completed in the order submitted by clients so it is important to meet the deadlines set. ESUPERFUND is always aware of the lodgement due dates and will ensure that these dates are met to the extent that the information is provided by the requested dates.

On completion you will be notified via your Client Portal Inbox that the annual compliance documentation is ready for review and signing from the client portal. Once you are satisfied that the documentation is correct, you have to sign the Declarations via your ESUPERFUND Client Portal. ESUPERFUND will then lodge your SMSF Annual Return with ATO and you are required to arrange any tax liability to ATO directly as instructed before the lodgement due date.

In the first year your SMSF is setup the SMSF must lodge its Tax Return by 28 February following the end of the Financial Year. In the second year and future years, the SMSF must lodge its annual Tax Return by 15 May following the end of the Financial Year. Your SMSF Annual Tax Return Due Date details can be found here

In the first year your SMSF is setup the SMSF must pay its tax liability by 28 February following the end of the Financial Year. In the second year and future years, the SMSF must pay its tax liability by 15 May following the end of the Financial Year.

The tax liability must be paid from the Transaction Bank Account established for your SMSF. ESUPERFUND will provide you with the relevant BPAY details to arrange payment of the tax liability from your SMSF's Transaction Bank Account.

When you become a client of ESUPERFUND, an ANZ V2 Plus Account will be established for your SMSF which will act as the Transaction Account for your SMSF. The Transaction Bank Account allows ESUPERFUND to electronically access the transactions made by your SMSF in order to attend to the SMSF Annual Compliance Requirements. That is at the end of each financial year, ANZ will send to ESUPERFUND an annual data file of all your SMSF transactions. Similarly at the end of each financial year, EBROKING will send to ESUPERFUND an annual data file of all your SMSF Trades and Transactions. It is important to understand that only electronic data files are provided to ESUPERFUND. ESUPERFUND has absolutely no access to your Transaction Bank Account or Share Trading Platform and cannot actually login to these Accounts.

At the end of each financial year, EBROKING will send to ESUPERFUND an annual data file of all your SMSF trades and transactions. This enables our office to attend to your SMSF's annual compliance obligations. No trading records are required from you each year as we already have access to the data. It is important to understand that only electronic data files are provided to ESUPERFUND. ESUPERFUND has absolutely no access to your Trading Platform and cannot actually login to your account to access the required data.

Each rollover must be allocated to a specific Member as part of the annual compliance process. This is a legal requirement. In order to determine which Member has made the rollover, ESUPERFUND will require the rollover details provided by the previous Superfund. If the rollover is processed via the SuperStream channel, the rollover details will be electronically received by ESUPERFUND, and therefore no further documentation or information is required from you. Otherwise, ESUPERFUND will request the information and the associated documentation at the end of the Financial Year as part of preparing the SMSF annual compliance requirements. This information is requested in the annual compliance checklist sent to you by 30 September each year.

All contributions made to your SMSF whether in cash or via a transfer of assets must be allocated to an SMSF Member. This is a legal requirement. It is also a legal requirement that each Member is issued with a Member Statement annually detailing their Member Balance movements including contributions made. Typically the Member making the contribution will be detailed on the Bank Statement. To the extent that the narration on the Bank Statement is insufficient, you will be asked to confirm on whose behalf the contributions have been made using an annual checklist we send to all SMSF clients by 30 September. You do not need to send us confirmation at the time each contribution is made. This information is only required annually and we will guide you through the process and prompt you when information is required from you.

All contributions made to your SMSF whether in cash or via a transfer of assets must be allocated to an SMSF Member. In addition the correct contribution type must be recorded. This is a legal requirement. It is also a legal requirement that each Member is issued with a Member Statement annually, detailing their Member Balance movements including contributions and the contribution type made. Typically the Member making the contribution will be detailed on the Bank Statement. However the type of Contribution will not be able to be determined solely from the Bank Statement. Accordingly you will be asked to confirm the contribution type made for each Member using an annual checklist we send to all SMSF clients by 30 September. You do not need to send us confirmation of the contribution type at the time each contribution is made. This information is only required annually and we will guide you through the process and prompt you when information is required from you. In addition please note that if you have claimed a Tax Deduction for a personal contribution, we will require a completed ATO Tax Deduction Form evidencing the Tax Deduction.

Each Pension or Lump Sum Withdrawal must be allocated to a specific Member as part of the annual compliance process. This is a legal requirement. Typically the Member making the withdrawal will be detailed on the Bank Statement. To the extent that the narration on the Bank Statement is insufficient, you will be asked to confirm which Member made the withdrawal using an annual checklist we send to all SMSF clients each year by 30 September. You do not need to send us confirmation at the time each withdrawal is made. This information is only required annually and we will guide you through the process and prompt you when information is required from you. Remember you can only make withdrawals from the SMSF if eligible. For more information on access to super benefits, please click here.

All Income derived by your SMSF must be deposited into your Transaction Bank Account. This includes interest, dividends, rent and so on. This allows us to track the Income for the SMSF and report it at year end in the SMSF Financial Statements. There will be times however that income will not be deposited into the SMSF or we will be unable to determine what the income relates to. For example interest that is reinvested in a Term Deposit or dividends that are reinvested under a Dividend Reinvestment Scheme. These types of transactions are allowable, however in this case additional information evidencing the Income will be required from you such as the Term Deposit or dividend statements. Any additional information is requested using an Annual Checklist we send to all SMSF clients each year by 30 September.

All expenses paid from your SMSF must be paid from the Transaction Bank Account. This allows us to track the expenses for the SMSF and report them at year end in the SMSF Financial Statements. There will be times however that we will require additional information about the expenses paid by your SMSF including receipts to ensure that the expenses are in the correct name. For example we will require a copy of your Insurance Policy to ensure that the policy has been taken out in the name of the SMSF. Any additional information is requested using an Annual Checklist we send to all SMSF clients each year by 30 September.

ESUPERFUND will send you an Annual Checklist by 30 September of each year detailing the information that we have and requesting additional information about your SMSF activities that we do not have data for. Where applicable we will request additional information to be provided to finalise your SMSF annual compliance requirements. However in most cases minimal information will need to be provided by you as it will be electronically accessed by ESUPERFUND.

All Members of an SMSF have a proportional interest in the SMSF assets based on the contributions and rollovers made to the SMSF and any withdrawals made from the SMSF by each Member. This means that if one Member contributes 100% of monies to the SMSF and a second Member contributes no monies, then the Member making the total contributions to the SMSF will own 100% of the SMSF. Similarly if one Member contributes say $60,000 to the SMSF and the other Member contributes say $40,000 to the SMSF, then Member 1 will own 60% of the SMSF assets and Member 2 will own 40% of the SMSF assets. Each Member's percentage or proportional interest in the SMSF assets is constantly changing. That is each time that a Member contributes or withdraws monies from the SMSF their proportional interest in the SMSF changes. ESUPERFUND tracks each Member's proportional entitlement in the SMSF by allocating every rollover, contribution and withdrawal to a specific Member. This is a legal requirement.

Your SMSF Earnings are allocated to each Member on a proportional basis based on each Member's percentage interest in the SMSF. This is done by ESUPERFUND automatically as part of the annual compliance process and no action is required by you. Importantly as part of the annual compliance process ESUPERFUND will prepare a Member Statement for each Member of the SMSF. This is a legal requirement. The Member Statements are included in the annual compliance documents completed for clients and must be approved by you as the SMSF Trustee before lodgement with the ATO.

Each SMSF Member Benefit is comprised of a "Taxable Component" and "Tax Free Component". The "Tax Free Component" typically comes from after tax personal "Non Concessional" contributions. The "Taxable Component" typically comes from "Concessional contributions", which include employer contributions and salary sacrifice contributions. Importantly ESUPERFUND tracks each component and provides a breakdown in each Member's Member Benefit Statement. No action is required by you.

Before you commence a Pension (SABP or TRIS) your SMSF Benefit is recorded in your "Accumulation Account". When you commence a SABP/TRIS your SMSF Benefit is transferred and recorded in your "SABP Account/TRIS Account”. These are "Accounting Entries" in your SMSF and do not require separate Bank Accounts for each Account Type.

Unlike Retail Funds, an SMSF can accept contributions (subject to the normal contributions rules) and rollovers after the SABP/TRIS has commenced. These contributions and rollovers continue to be made to the Transaction Bank Account setup for your SMSF. When you make additional contributions and rollovers to your SMSF after you commence a SABP/TRIS, they are allocated to your "Accumulation Account".

This will mean that you will have two "Accounting Accounts" at the same time in this case, namely a "SABP Account/TRIS Account” paying your Pension and an "Accumulation Account" which represents the additional contributions and rollovers made to your SMSF after commencing the Pension. The difference between each Account is the "SABP Account" does not pay tax on earnings and realised capital gains but the "Accumulation Account" and “TRIS Account” do pay tax on earnings and realised capital gains at up to 15%.

Importantly ESUPERFUND tracks each component and provides a breakdown in each Member's Member Benefit Statement. No action is required by you.

As a Trustee you must ensure all investment decisions are made in accordance with the documented Investment Strategy of the SMSF. We recommend that investment decisions are documented detailing how they conform to the Investment Strategy of the SMSF. Documenting Investments does not mean that you document every Investment made by the SMSF. Typically investment themes should be documented. For example you may be acquiring blue chip shares for capital growth and tax-effective fully franked dividends. In this case, one investment minute should be prepared detailing the rationale for this investment. You should not prepare a separate minute for every blue chip shares purchased. Similarly you may invest in several Term Deposits for capital stability and to generate a consistent ongoing yield. Again, in this case one investment minute should be prepared detailing the rationale for this investment. You can download a Standard Investment Minutes here.

Yes. The SMSF Trustees must review the Investment Strategy of the SMSF annually and at such other times as a significant event occurs which affects the SMSF. This does NOT mean that each individual Investment must be reviewed. Individual Investments can be overseen on a daily basis (i.e. the sharemarket can change rapidly) and changed at any time. The Investment Review relates to reviewing the overall Investment Strategy of the SMSF. For example the SMSF Trustee may decide over time to change the SMSF asset allocation when moving from working to retirement, or the methodology when choosing an Investment. We recommend a minute be prepared detailing the results of the Annual Investment Review of the SMSF. In many cases there will be no change to the Investment Strategy and the underlying Investments making up that strategy. In this case a Minute will typically state that there has been no material change in the Investment Strategy or the Investments of the SMSF. Alternatively if there has been a material change in the Investments of the SMSF this should be minuted as part of the Annual Investment Review. For example you may be moving from an aggressive investment theme that invests predominantly in speculative and blue chip shares as you were working and required capital growth to a more capital stable income-generating investment theme as you were approaching or had retired.

Tax is paid on your SMSF earnings and Concessional Contributions annually on the lodgement of your SMSF Tax Return. To calculate the tax liability of the SMSF, all tax deductions and tax credits are deducted before determining the final tax liability payable by the SMSF for the year. The final tax liability is payable when the Tax Return is due for lodgement with the ATO. It is noted in the first year your SMSF is setup the SMSF must lodge its tax return by 28 February following the end of the Financial Year. In the second year and future years the SMSF must lodge its tax return by 15 May following the end of the Financial Year.