In some good news for trustees and their advisers, the ATO is improving their SMSF notifications.
Feedback from trustees and practitioners is that SMSF notifications were too vague, simply describing a ‘change’ to the fund or account.
This would arise when legitimate activity – such as a lodgement – was made, sparking unnecessary concern and confusion for trustees and consequently, some follow up with advisers as required to relieve any undue concern.
By being more detailed on exactly what changes have occurred on an account, it’s anticipated that this will remove any unnecessary fear, uncertainty and doubt for trustees and work on behalf of advisers to ensure there’s no fraudulent or unauthorised activity being taken on the client’s account.
The ATO will start to issue more detailed information and change alerts when a trustee or administrator:
- registers a new SMSF
- changes an existing SMSF’s:
- financial institution account details
- electronic service address (ESA)
- authorised contact members
The new, additional information from the ATO should remove any unnecessary confusion.
For more information on these changes, visit the ATO’s website.