ATO is More Lenient with Market Valuation

The ATO has released a relaxed Market Valuation Guidelines which provides updated approaches for SMSF Trustees and Auditors. You can view the Guidelines here.

The renewed emphasis of the guideline is summarized below:

Qualified Independent Valuer

The ATO has updated its lexicon, replacing “external valuation” with “valuation by a qualified independent valuer”.

Using this as a preferred term enables the ATO to clarify how frequently a valuation from a qualified independent valuer is required.

SMSF Trustee Responsibilities

Trustees are not required to have a valuation by a qualified independent valuer undertaken each year unless a significant event has affected an asset’s value.

These events include natural disasters, global pandemic, macroeconomic events, market volatility or changes to the character of the asset.

SMSF Trustees now have responsibilities when they rely on a qualified independent valuation from the prior year. The guidelines now state they need to:

1. assess whether it is still appropriate to use
2. document how they came to this conclusion

When making Trustee Valuation, you can use our template here.

Conclusion

SMSF Trustees must now document why they accepted a qualified independent market valuation in a subsequent year. While the ATO has provided a softened approach to its market valuation guidelines, SMSF auditors will continue to apply their professional judgement and ensure that sufficient and appropriate audit evidence is included their audit file.

More info about Asset Annual Revaluation and to download the revaluation template, please see our page.