The ATO recently announced that pensions will increasingly be an area of focus in the 2015-16 financial year. Katarina Taurian went one-on-one with the regulator to find out what this means for SMSF professionals and trustees alike.

For pensions, the alarm bells well and truly began ringing earlier this year when the ATO contacted SMSF Adviser to say that pensions are an increasing and key area of focus for its compliance activities.

Just last month, the ATO told SMSF Adviser that pensions will remain on the regulatory radar for the 2015-16 financial year, with specific areas of focus including non-compliance with the pension rules and inappropriately claimed tax deductions when a fund is in pension phase.

The regulator gave SMSF Adviser an extensive overview of its 2015-16 pensions focus. While some of the compliance blunders mentioned are surprisingly simple, others are more complex.

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