Legislation and Rules

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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.