Self-managed super fund audit involves an approved auditor conducting a compliance and financial audit of your super fund. The financial audit involves the auditor examining your financial statement, while the compliance audit is about ensuring that your SMSF is compliant with all the superannuation rules. When SMSFs are in accordance with their own investment systems, they allow you to buy property. However, not many SMSFs are completely in accordance, because until 2007 they were not able to borrow. Since 1993, the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act demands SMSF trustees to have a super fund audit once per year by a licensed auditor.
The most frequently asked questions about super fund audit is “Can I conduct an audit for my fund?”. According to the ATO regulations, neither you nor any of your SMSF members can complete a super fund audit, because it would be a breach of ethical requirements (independence related). SMSF audits can be exclusively performed by approved and qualified auditors, experienced and knowledgeable in performing audits according to the law. If you want to become an approved SMSF auditor (but for auditing other super funds), you must:
- be an Australian resident;
- have enough practical experience;
- hold an education qualification;
- pass a competency testing;
To avoid fines by the Australian Taxation Office, keep yourself updated with all the legal and taxation obligations, whether you are the owner or a trustee of the fund. Indeed setting up an SMSF is easy, but handling it can be much more complicated. So, the increased number of Australians should not come as a surprise.
Most SMSF owners decide to hire a professional to help them out in handling their super funds. Preparing all the files required for a super fund audit is not easy. Moreover, they must comply with the SMSF regulations of the ATO. But professionals in auditing and handling SMSFs have no problems with anything related with these super funds. They are even able to discover all possible issues that might occur in near future. A well-performed super fund audit prevents bad investments and protects your money.
