SMSF Regulations
SMSFs are regulated by the ATO. There are several excellent ATO booklets explaining the SMSF’s rules and your responsibilities as a Trustee. To access the list of ATO publications for SMSFs, click here.
Legislation
SMSFs are subject to numerous legislative instruments, the most relevant are:
- Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (‘SISA’);
- Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994;
- Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, and
- Corporations Act 2001.
Annual SMSF requirements
On an annual basis Trustees of an SMSF must:
- prepare financial statements
- prepare an annual return and ensure it is lodged with the ATO by the due date (usually 15 May for the previous year to 30 June)
- appoint an Approved Auditor to examine the SMSF’s financial statements and assess the compliance status of the SMSF at the end of each financial year, and
- pay the supervisory levy and the SMSF’s tax liability when due.
Record keeping for an SMSF
Trustees must keep the following records for at least 5 years:
- accounting records detailing the SMSF’s transactions
- annual operating statements and annual statement of the SMSF’s financial position
- copies of annual returns lodged, and
- copies of any other statements lodged with the ATO or provided to other super funds.
Trustees should keep the following records for 10 years:
- minutes of all trustee meetings
- change of trustee records
- change of director records, if the SMSF has a corporate trustee
- trustee declarations, for trustees appointed after 30 June 2007
- written consent by members appointed as trustee, and
- copies of Member Reports.
Examples of these documents can be downloaded from our Downloads section.
