ATO – Audits on the top 100 SMSF auditors
The ATO has released the results of their review of 51 of the top 100 SMSF auditors who audit 33% of the total population of SMSFs, representing around $186 billion in assets.
The ATO's focus on the top 100 SMSF auditors is to understand and gain assurance about the methods, processes and controls in place that allow the SMSF auditor to sign off on a large number of audits annually.
The result of the reviews were:
- 10 auditors were found to be fully compliant
- 36 required further education
- 3 auditors voluntarily deregistered once the audit was commenced
- 2 auditors were referred to ASIC because they had failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to verify the fund's compliance with the relevant super laws.
The ATO are concerned:
- that some auditors failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence or failed to evaluate the evidence in order to demonstrate how the auditor arrived at their opinion on the financial and compliance audit
- with the number of unsigned financial statements found
- the lack of other documents that should be on the audit file, such as a signed trustee representation letter, engagement letter and in some cases, a management letter
The ATO are planning on completing audits on the remaining 49 auditors by the end of the 2020 financial year.
ATO – SMSF quarterly statistical report September 2019
The ATO has released its quarterly SMSF statistical report for the quarter ended September 2019.
Highlights include:
- There are 598,582 SMSFs
- There are 1,124,699 members of SMSFs
- The total estimated assets of SMSFs are just over $746 billion
- The top asset types held by SMSFs (by value) are:
- listed shares (31% of total estimated SMSF assets)
- cash and term deposits (21%).
Content sourced from ICAANZ. posted 7/2/2020
