ATO assistant commissioner for superannuation Kasey Macfarlane told SMSF Adviser that the tax office recently contacted a group of SMSF members who failed in their lodgement requirements.

While most were co-operative, some have not responded to the ATO’s communications about their lodgement status, and the tax office plans to step up its attempts to contact these members.

While in the majority of cases there is “nothing untoward” going on, Ms Macfarlane said this will continue to be an area of focus for the ATO, particularly in relation to high-value funds.

“Our current focus is to ensure that SMSFs are complying with their basic income tax and regulatory obligations. These include getting an annual audit done and lodging annual returns. We will be contacting SMSFs that persistently fail to lodge annual returns, and advise trustees to lodge all overdue annual returns or wind up the fund,” the ATO said recently.

“The details of these funds have been removed from the Super Fund Lookup register. Super funds and employers should not roll over benefits or make super guarantee payments to funds that are not on the register.

“Trustees that fail to lodge annual returns by the due date risk incurring penalties and being disqualified as a trustee.”