In a recent update, the ATO said that following this latest mailout the ATO has already received information from SMSF auditors that their auditor details may have been misused in recently lodged SMSF annual returns.

“As part of our follow-up, we will be contacting tax agents and trustees in the next few weeks to ask for more information about the audit of specific SMSFs where we have been informed that the auditor listed in a SAR did not complete the audit,” said the Tax Office.

If tax agents or trustees believe there may be an error with the auditor details that were lodged in the SAR, the ATO said they should check their lodgements now to confirm that all information is correct.

“Where you find an error, you should lodge an amendment to the SAR to rectify,” the ATO said.

“If you are an SMSF auditor and have not responded to the SAN misuse mailout, there is still time. You should follow the steps in your email and respond via Secure mail in Online services for business,” it said.

After implementing a new strategy with its mailout system, the ATO identified increased levels of SAN misuse for the period between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021.

ATO data released in May indicated that there were 1,896 instances of SAN misuse reported in total for that period.