SMSF trustees have been reminded by the ATO to check if they are required to lodge an annual return for their fund by 28 February.
The regulator stated that if an SMSF had assets such as super contributions or other investments as of 30 June 2024, its trustees will need to lodge an SMSF annual return (SAR) for the 2024 financial year.
“Failure to lodge a SAR on time could result in the compliance status of an SMSF on Super Fund Lookup being changed to ‘regulation details removed’, which may result in rollovers and employer contributions not being made to the fund,” it said.
“Trustees should refer to the 2024 SAR instructions or contact a registered tax professional as soon as possible if they need help lodging their SAR.
“If a fund does not have any assets, trustees will need to either make a ‘return not necessary’ request or cancel their fund’s registration if they no longer wish to have a SMSF.”
The ATO encouraged trustees to review the regulator’s reporting obligations checklist online or visit its SMSF support services for help.
The regulator has continued to communicate its concerns over SAR non-lodgement due to the fact it is often associated with illegal early release activities.
In December it took the time to quantify the extent of the problem.
“For [the] 2023 [income year] SARs, we’re somewhere in the vicinity of 90,000 funds that are still yet to lodge. In addition to that, we’ve got about 60,000 [SARs] that are still outstanding for the 2022 year as well,” ATO acting deputy commissioner Paul Delahunty revealed.
“So it is a growing issue for us and it is something we are turning our minds to in relation to a compliance response,” he confirmed.
In addition he pointed out around 5000 funds that were registered in the 2023 income year had not lodged an initial SAR.
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