Section 130 of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SISA) requires self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) auditors to report contraventions to the ATO if they know or suspect that a contravention has, is or is about to occur by lodging an Auditor/Actuary Contravention Report (ACR).
The ATO has recently released updated instructions to assist SMSF auditors to complete an ACR. In addition to information about reporting criteria and examples to complete the ACR, the guidance has also been included about the types of additional information that may need to be reported and when not to report under section G – Other regulatory information.
Accordingly, the auditor may consider reporting the following:
- Any repeated contraventions of non-reportable sections or regulations
- Any questionable conduct of trustee/tax agent/administrator during engagement, such as undue pressure or influence to provide an unqualified audit report
- Any concerns the auditor may have resulting from a trustee failing to co-operate or terminating auditor’s engagement
- Any questionable conduct of a previous SMSF auditor, including where previous contraventions were not identified
This additional information together with the contraventions, annual return and other trustee records is used by the ATO as indicators of high risk SMSFs which then will be selected for comprehensive audit of tax and regulatory affairs by the ATO.
The ATO has monitored the SMSF industry continuously to ensure that funds are paying the correct tax and that their sole purpose is to meet members’ retirement income objectives.