ATO reminds auditors to verify compliance with trustee declarations

SMSF auditors must meet trustee declaration requirements to avoid compliance issues, the ATO has recently warned. The regulator said as part of the annual compliance audit, SMSF auditors must confirm that trustees have properly signed and stored their trustee declarations. Auditors must verify this for anyone who became a trustee or director of a corporate trustee after 30 June 2007, or completed an education direction.

It continued that trustees must keep their signed declarations for as long as the declaration remains relevant to the fund. A declaration remains relevant while the individual serves as a trustee or director of the fund's corporate trustee.

Additionally, auditors can confirm trustee declarations are signed and stored correctly by first sighting a signed trustee declaration for each person required to sign one and keeping a copy on the audit file, and then receiving a written confirmation from the trustees that they have signed and stored the declarations in line with record keeping requirements.

The ATO reminded auditors that checking whether trustees have signed and kept declarations is required under section 104A of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 and is considered an expectation of auditors when conducting the compliance audit.

Article written by Keeli Cambourne

June 11 2025