The responses have allowed the ATO to identify tax professionals who have submitted SMSF annual returns (SARs) possibly quoting incorrect SMSF auditor numbers (SANs) and will need to review SMSF auditor numbers reported.

“These tax professionals will shortly receive an email from us requesting that they review the SAR for the 2018–19 year for the identified fund to ensure the auditor details provided are correct,” the ATO said.

“Reporting incorrect SANs on SMSF clients’ returns can have adverse impacts on both your practice and your clients and could result in a referral to the Tax Practitioners Board.”

The ATO noted that it is still seeing a large number of returns which have inadvertently reported an incorrect SAN. 

To ensure these errors do not occur, the ATO advised that tax professionals completing Question 6 of the SAR use the information in the SMSF independent auditor’s report (IAR), including the SMSF auditor number, name, address and the date the auditor signed the IAR as the date the audit was completed.

Furthermore, practitioners should ensure review of the IAR and report any qualifications of Part A and/or Part B and check that it has prefilled or rolled-over auditor numbers from prior year lodgements that are still correct.

“We are also contacting some trustees who have self-prepared returns and who have been identified as using incorrect SANs on their returns,” the ATO said.  

The deliberate misuse of SMSF auditor numbers had been identified as an ongoing area of concern with the ATO and the TPB, with 74 tax practitioners singled out last year over such misuse.

Earlier this year, a Perth-based tax agent also saw his registration terminated after he was found to have lodged 125 SMSF annual returns over nine years with false SAN declarations.