“There may be older directors in particular who don’t have email addresses or use smartphones who for all sorts of legitimate reasons want to use those alternatives.”

Directors planning to use these alternatives methods should do so as soon as possible, he warned, given some of the extra requirements involved and the 30 November deadline fast approaching.

“If you’re using a paper alternative, you will need to get certain documents certified which is unsurprising.”

“However, it also states that a certifier cannot witness documents for their family, clients or where it could create a real or perceived conflict of interest.

“This means that if you’ve got an elderly client, you won’t be able to certify their documents for them, their lawyer can’t certify their documents, someone unconnected with them will need to do it.”

With the failure to apply for a director ID likely to incur significant penalties and the deadline less than two weeks away, Mr Figot said anyone yet to apply should do so now.

The ATO stated last month that at 19 October that just 48 per cent, or 330,000 SMSF directors had already been issued an ID.

The uptake was even worse for the overall director population, with ATO figures to 19 October revealing around 1 million directors had applied for an ID from an estimated population of 2.5 million.

The ATO has since released draft legislation providing resigned directors with an exemption to the requirements.

ABRS 2022/D1, released this week, sets out changes to the “eligible officer” rules that previously required anyone who was a director immediately prior to 4 April 2021 (when the rule applied), or who became a director between then and 31 October 2021, to obtain an ID number by the end of this month.

Anyone becoming a director after 31 October 2021 was obliged to get an ID number first, so the November 30 deadline does not apply.

The draft legislation now excludes anyone who was a director prior to 31 October 2021 but who resigned on or before the 30 November deadline.