“It is important to correctly record reportable contraventions when preparing and lodging your ACR in Section E,” the ATO said.

“Section E (Contraventions) is where you must report all contraventions of the sections and regulations listed in tables 1A and 1B of the ACR instructions that meet the reporting criteria. If there are contraventions that are not listed in the tables, you can report them in Section G.”

For Section G, the ATO reminded that it allows auditors to report any other concerns, in addition to the events and contraventions that have already been reported about either the fund or the trustees.

Section G is not mandatory and auditors can report information such as repeated contraventions of non-reportable sections or regulations. 

This also includes questionable conduct of a trustee, tax agent, administrator, or a previous SMSF auditor, along with concerns resulting from a trustee failing to co-operate with the auditor or terminating the engagement.

The ATO stated that auditors should not use this section if there are no compliance issues or other relevant issues of concern to report.

“Do not use this section for reporting a contravention of section 35D (fund has failed to lodge their annual return by the due date) as we are able to detect these contraventions,” the ATO warned.

“Information related to an event or contravention such as subsection 35C(2) listed in table 1 must be reported at Section E (Contraventions). This information should not be included here.

“Remember to always refer to the ACR instructions, as we update these on a regular basis.”