SMSF Superannuation Melbourne Services

Setting up an SMSF allows Trustees to invest in asset classes not normally utilised by retail or industry superfunds. Examples are investments like bitcoin, property or investments in private companies. We explain the type of investments an SMSF can invest in over here.

Accountants can prepare the annual accounts and tax return themselves. If you self-prepare your SMSF annual return and financial statements, we can rperform an audit and issue an audit report. Trustees can then lodge the annual tax return for the SMSF. We explain the steps on how to go about yourself over here

SMSF administration is when you have a professiuonal firm like Superannuation Warehouse assisting in keeping the Fund compliant. We are a registered accountant and tax agent. This means we prepare financial statements for the SMSF, the annual tax return and minutes for Trustees to sign in order to keep it compliant with legislation. We prepare the annual compliance documents based on the information provided by Trustees. We explain more on the administration process here.

To access Super You have to meet an age condition which is 60 and retired or 65 irrespective of your working conditions to access your Super. You may also access your Super if you have severe financial hardship or are terminally ill. All the conditions of release of Super are explained here

The annual accounting costs are generally $89 per month which totals $1,068 per year.We charge a set-up fee for a new SMSF of $450 or $1,400, depending if you set it up with a Corporate Trustee. In addition, A feach Fund will pay $259 per year to the ATO as a surcharge for the ATO to perform the regularory function. A fee schedule setting out our fees are noted here.

The sole purpose test is the most important rule in Super. This means you managing the Fund in a way that genuinely provides for your retirement benefit. This should be the main purpose of the SMSF. We explain more here.

There is no set minimum balance to start an SMSF. However, make sure its cost effective for you to set up an SMSF. Having multiple Members in an SMSF assist with sharing the cost. More guidance on how costs are allocated here.

An SMSF provider is a professional accounting firm that will assist you as Trustee of the SMSF to make sure all the compliance aspects are adhered to. We are a registered accountant and tax agent. This means we prepare financial statements for the SMSF, the annual tax return and minutes for Trustees to sign in order to keep it compliant with ATO rules. We will prepare the annual compliance documents based on the information you send to us, similar to if you get your personal tax accountant to prepare your personal tax. We explain what we do here on an annual basis here.

Trustees of the SMSF who are also the Members have the responsibility to manage the Fund. Every Member must be a Trustee and this is how you manage your own SMSF. We explain more here.

The name of your SMSF is ABC Family Super Fund. When the ATO sends correspondence to you, they always address the Trustees of the SMSF. The SMSF are the Managers or custodians of the SMSF and responsible for running the SMSF, so the name the ATO uses “The trustee for ABC Family Super Fund”.

We have a template where the Trustees note the amount allocated to a pension. From an accounting and tax point of view, the only difference is that you are not taxed at 15% but at 0%, so it actually makes our job easier. There’s no extra cost to set up a pension or draw a pension. Our fees are fixed. You do the draw down and generally draw down 4% of the pension opening balance per year.

The Trust Deed and Investment Strategy that we will supply you with when the SMSF is set up are fairly wide. It covers local and international investments and include shares, options, CFDs, property etc. We give you this template in Word format, so you can edit and adjust this in the rare occasion that it does not cover what you intend to invest in.

Fixed price for any investments you choose in your Fund. If there’s only a few transactions, a scanned copy of a statement will be sufficient, but we prefer soft copies, especially with higher volumes. Most providers will supply you with a soft copy to download.

We have a copy of your accounts on a paper format as well as soft copy at our office. All source documents e.g. bank statements, etc. would be kept by you as responsible Trustee of the SMSF. We require copies only, and the best option is a soft copy or scanned copy emailed to us.

You keep all original documents. Our preference is to receive soft copies of statements . This means we can load it directly into our accounting system to produce your SMSF annual accounts and tax return. This also means we do not have to re-key your data and this improves accuracy.

Superannuation Warehouse provides annual accounts.

The reason Superannuation Warehouse can offer the SMSF service at a low price is that our system is specifically written to pick up these files in an electronic format and then do accounts and the tax return in a paperless format. For a simple fund with just bank accounts, we charge a lower accounting and administration fees compared to a more complex fund investing in investment properties, share derivatives and FX.