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Home / SMSFs / SMSF administration / Can you be your own accountant for your SMSF?

Can you be your own accountant for your SMSF?

November 19, 2019 by Penny Pryor Leave a Comment

Reading time: 3 minutes

On this page

  • Who’s it for?
  • Dealing with the ATO
  • Dealing with ASIC
  • Key dates
  • Wrap-up

Many SuperGuide readers like to manage as much of their self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) themselves as possible.

We’ve written before about how to find low-cost services but if you’ve got a head for numbers and accounting you might be able to go one step further.

Just like you don’t need an accountant to lodge personal income tax returns, it is possible to forsake the use of an accountant when it comes to your SMSF and lodging its accounts. However, you will need to have fairly good administration software and understand the rules and regulations very clearly.

Who’s it for?

This approach would suit a fund with all members in accumulation phase and with a fairly simple investment strategy. It might also suit trustees that already have a business and the relevant software needed to set up a direct portal to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

It is definitely more suitable for those with more time on their hands – a commodity not necessarily in surplus for business owners.

And keep in mind the ASIC recent warning that SMSFs may not be appropriate for those with balances under $500,000.


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Dealing with the ATO

In our article on ways that SMSFs can be ultra low-cost we explain everything you need to do to set up an SMSF and create a trust deed and investment strategy yourself. However, one thing you will need to keep doing after you’ve set up an SMSF is to lodge the SMSF’s tax return and financial statements and pay the supervisory levy each year.

Depending on your balance and what happens with your SMSF during the year, you may also have transfer balance account reporting requirements.

Currently there is no direct ATO portal for SMSFs, but SMSFs can lodge their SMSF Annual Return electronically or by paper with the ATO.

If trustees don’t want to lodge electronically via a tax agent (which the ATO reports 99% of SMSFs do) they can lodge through the Standard Business Reporting (SBR) portal.

To do that, the SMSF will need:

  • an AUSkey
  • SBR-enabled business software

Apply for an AUSkey electronically through the Australian Business Register website here.

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However, there is one thing that you won’t be able to do yourself and that’s get your SMSF audited. Even if you are an auditor you still need your SMSF independently audited by a third party every year.

Your auditor must be registered with ASIC as an approved SMSF auditor. Check their database of auditors here.

Dealing with ASIC

If you have a corporate trustee structure for your SMSF you will need to pay ASIC fees each year – and notify ASIC of any changes to the trustee company at any point.

While there is no specific portal for SMSFs that use a corporate trustee, ASIC says the directors of a corporate trustee could use the company officeholders portal to lodge documents with ASIC.

SMSF software

There is a vast range of SMSF software products available for SMSF trustees to help manage and administer funds. However, if you are seeking to pass information directly on to the ATO and ASIC, it is probably better to use SMSF software that is also SBR-enabled. The below four products are included on the SBR website’s list of products available that provide self-managed superannuation fund annual return (SMSFAR) reporting.

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Software productDeveloped byLatest version
ESUPERFUND_SBR_ServicesESUPERFUND Pty Ltdv2016.1
IDS SuperIDS Super Pty Ltd2016
Simple Fund 360BGL Corporate Solutionsv1.15
SuperMateSupercorp Technology Pty Ltdv4.1

Depending on what level of service you are after, the products provide varied levels of SMSF administration, technical and investment assistance.

Key dates

  1. ATO annual return and supervisory levy

If you lodge your SMSF annual return yourself, the due date is generally 28 February the following financial year. If you did not lodge your return for the previous financial year on time, the due date will be 31 October. For your first year the due date is 31 October.

  1. Corporate trustees

ASIC will send you an annual statement for your registration fees shortly after your annual review date, which is the anniversary of the day you registered the corporate trustee.

The fee must be paid by the due date or there will be a late payment fee.

  • Payment up to one month late – $80
  • Payment more than one month late – $333
  1. Transfer balance account reporting

SMSFs paying a pension are also required to report transfer balance events. The main kind of transfer balance event will be the details of a new retirement phase or death benefit income streams. (See our article here for more information as to what constitutes a transfer balance event.)

The due date for reporting a transfer balance event will depend on the size of the pension account balance and the total superannuation balances of members. For a fund with member superannuation balances of no more than $1 million when they start a pension, the fund only needs to report once a year with their annual SMSF tax return. However, for funds with member balances of more than $1 million, reporting must be done within 28 days of the end of the quarter the event occurred.


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Wrap-up

It is possible to partially be your own accountant but, if this is the path you want to go down, make sure you do it for the right reasons. You will need a reasonable knowledge of accounting practices, otherwise it might end up costing you more than it’s worth if you end up getting fined for a mistake.

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Learn more about SMSF administration in the following SuperGuide articles:

Your SMSF calendar

January 4, 2021

What you need to know about six member SMSFs

December 1, 2020

SMSF trustee housekeeping checklist for 2020/21

June 29, 2020

Guide to the ATO SMSF supervisory levy

June 1, 2020

The SMSF trustee declaration explained

June 1, 2020

Guide to SMSF trust deeds

June 1, 2020

SMSF annual admin checklist

April 22, 2020

Top 5 mistakes SMSF trustees make with their annual returns

April 22, 2020

Guide to SMSF administration, reporting and record-keeping

January 1, 2020

SMSFs: What advice can your accountant provide?

December 14, 2019

How to wind up an SMSF

December 4, 2019

How to set up an SMSF correctly

December 3, 2019

How to record SMSF minutes

November 3, 2019

Guide to SMSF audits

June 14, 2019

Real DIY super: Ways that SMSFs can be ultra low-cost

May 2, 2019

Estate planning, super and SMSFs: Getting your house in order

February 11, 2019

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All information on SuperGuide is general in nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs.

You should consider whether any information on SuperGuide is appropriate to you before acting on it.

If SuperGuide refers to a financial product you should obtain the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or seek personal financial advice before making any investment decisions.

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