SMSF Audit

Independent audits for self-managed super funds

Every SMSF has to be audited each year before its annual return can be lodged, and the audit has to be done by someone registered with ASIC and genuinely independent of the fund. That is what we do here – for trustees who want it handled properly, and for accountants and administrators who need an auditor at arm’s length from the books they have prepared.

Thomas Murmylo, director of Business Tax & Money House, is an ASIC-registered SMSF auditor – SMSF Auditor Number (SAN) 100090506, which you are welcome to check against the ASIC register before you engage us. We have been auditing funds since the practice opened in 2009.

Trustees

You run your own fund and need this year’s audit done. Send us the file and we will tell you what is missing, what we need signed, and what – if anything – needs fixing before we can sign off.

Accountants and administrators

You prepare the accounts and need an auditor who is independent of them. We work as the audit half of that arrangement for other firms, on a repeatable annual cycle, and we do not approach your clients.

Anywhere in Australia

The audit runs on documents, not meetings. We are in Bondi Junction, but the fund does not have to be – most of our audits are done entirely electronically.

Independence – and when it rules us out

Independence is the whole point of the audit, and the rules changed in 2021 to tighten it. A firm can no longer audit a fund whose financial statements it also prepared, unless the accounting work was purely routine or mechanical.

In practice that means we do one job or the other for your fund, never both:

  • If we prepare your fund’s accounts, or do any work for Members or associates of the fund, we cannot audit it. We will happily point you to an auditor who can.
  • If we audit your fund, we cannot prepare its accounts or give the trustees advice that we would then be auditing.

We also offer a compliance review – going through a fund and putting it in order before it goes to its auditor, so the audit finds nothing. The same rule applies: we can do the review or the audit for a given fund, not both.

What the audit actually covers

An SMSF audit is two audits in one report:

  • The financial audit – that the fund’s statements fairly reflect its position, that assets exist and belong to the fund, and that they are carried at market value as at 30 June.
  • The compliance audit – that the fund met the SIS Act and Regulations for the year: sole purpose, contribution caps and eligibility, benefit payments and pension minimums, in-house asset limits, arm’s-length dealings, loans and borrowings, and that the assets are held in the fund’s name and separate from the members’ own.

What we need from you

The audit moves at the speed of the documents. A complete file at the start is the single biggest thing that shortens it:

  • Signed financial statements and member statements for the year
  • The trust deed and every amendment, plus trustee consents and ATO trustee declarations
  • Bank statements covering the full year
  • Holding statements, contract notes and registry confirmations for each investment
  • Evidence of market value at 30 June for every asset – for property, a valuation or supporting comparables
  • Contribution records, and rollover and benefit payment documentation
  • Pension documentation and, where required, an actuarial certificate
  • Trustee minutes and the fund’s investment strategy, reviewed for the year
  • The prior year’s audit report and any management letter
  • Signed trustee representation letter

If something on that list does not exist yet, say so early rather than late. Most audit delays are a missing valuation or an unsigned document, not a real problem with the fund.

How long it takes

Two dates drive the timetable. Trustees must appoint an auditor at least 45 days before the fund’s annual return is due, and once we have every document we have asked for, we must give you the audit report within 28 days. In practice a complete file comes back well inside that; an incomplete one can sit for months.

If we find a contravention

Finding a problem does not automatically mean a report to the ATO. Where a breach meets the reporting tests, we are required to lodge an Auditor Contravention Report – but we will raise it with you first, and where it can still be rectified before year end or before we sign, we will tell you what that takes. Nothing in the audit report will be the first you hear of it.

What it costs

The fee depends on the fund – how many members, how many investments, whether there is property or a pension, and how complete the file is when it arrives. Send us last year’s financial statements and we will quote before we start, not after.

Where we are

Our office is in Bondi Junction. Trustees and accountants across Sydney and the Eastern Suburbs are welcome to come in, and everyone else we look after electronically – the audit does not need you in the room.

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