SAR lodgment time deadline
SMSF trustees are required to have lodged their SAR by tomorrow (15 May) or risk losing their compliance status.
The ATO has reminded trustees that not all SMSFs have the same lodgment due date, so it is best to check which due date applies to individual funds as failure to lodge by the due date can result in penalties and the loss of the SMSF’s tax concessions.
When an SMSF annual return (SAR) is more than two weeks overdue, and the trustee has notified the ATO it may change the compliance status of the SMSF on Super Fund Lookup to Regulation details removed. This status will remain until any overdue lodgments are brought up to date.
If an SMSF has a status of Regulation details removed, APRA funds will not be able to roll over member benefits and employers are recommended to not make any super guarantee payments to the fund's members.
The regulator is also reminding SMSFs that if the fund is a trust beneficiary from 1 July 2024 there will be changes to reporting.
Income tax reporting changes delivered under the Modernisation of Trust Administration System (MTAS) project will come into effect on 1 July 2024 for 2023–24 SARs.
If an SMSF has received a distribution from a trust, it needs to complete a new trust income schedule which is lodged with its SAR. The ATO has replicated the fields from the trust statement of distribution, so all trustees need to do is copy the information across.
If an SMSF receives a distribution of trust income from a managed fund, this should also be included in the new trust income schedule. The trust income schedule instructions explain how the information on the tax statement provided by the managed fund is reported on the trust income schedule.
All information required in the trust income schedule from the trust is needed and the ATO recommends members as the trustee for a copy of the trust statement of distribution if they don't receive one by the time they come to lodge your SAR.
Find out more about the MTAS project and these changes at Modernising trust administration systems.