ATO SMSF Compliance program 2012-13

In 2012/13 financial year, the focus of ATO SMSF compliance activity will be on:

• new trustees, to ensure they can operate their SMSF and are not seeking to illegally access their retirement benefits
• lodgment of fund annual returns to improve timeliness and also, in the case of new funds, to ensure they are entitled to receive their notice of compliance
• irregularities in exempt current pension income and non arm’s length transactions
• re-reporting of contributions and compliance with excess contributions tax release authorities
• breaches of trustee obligations reported to us by approved auditors.

For the first time ATO will run a program focused on the largest SMSFs to check they are meeting their obligations. In 2012-13, ATO  will be analysing the top 200 SMSFs based on total assets, and based on our analysis of their tax and regulatory risk ATO will select 25 SMSFs for a comprehensive audit.