Making permanent changes to federal laws to allow electronically signed digital trust deeds will only assist SMSFs when all the states implement similar changes.

Having original documents may be the only acceptable way of proving SMSF trust deed variations have been properly executed, a specialist lawyer has said.

Corporate trustees can still execute deeds electronically after the government extended measures exempting them from having to do so face to face using ink and paper.

Trustees buying property through limited recourse borrowing arrangements should confirm in what order key documents should be signed in the state of purchase, an SMSF legal expert says.

A technical expert has highlighted the need to get the procedural timing relating to the signing of an SMSF’s annual return correct.

Directors of an SMSF corporate trustee will be required to comply with a new identification process introduced through legislation passed earlier this month.

SMSFs looking to prepare special purpose financial statements will need to ensure their trust deed is set up accordingly thanks to a newly amended accounting standard, the ATO says.