After establishing your new SMSF, you must elect for your fund to be regulated by us. You need to do this within 60 days of establishment for your fund to be eligible for concessional tax treatment. You elect to be regulated on the same form that is used to apply for registration of your SMSF. This form also allows you to register your SMSF for goods and services tax (GST), which is required if annual GST turnover is greater than $75,000.
Part of the registration process for your SMSF also requires you to register the SMSF members and trustees. It is important to register members correctly to avoid delays in processing rollovers from other super funds and employer contributions.
Your application to register your SMSF and your election to be regulated are processed in stages.
Initially, your SMSF will be issued an ABN and will be listed on the ABR at abr.gov.au as a super fund. Limited details about your fund will also appear on SFLU at superfundlookup.gov.au with a status: 'Election to be regulated is being processed' with an estimated completion date.
At this stage, no rollovers or super guarantee payments can be accepted by your SMSF. We conduct a risk assessment of all new SMSFs and every individual associated with it. We may contact you with regards to your application during this initial stage.
Once your application is fully processed, further fund details will appear on SFLU. Your SMSF will now be displayed as a regulated fund and the status will be updated to: 'Registered - status not determined'. This is the status allocated to all regulated SMSFs once registration of the fund, its members and trustees is complete. It takes approximately seven days for an SMSF to appear on SFLU as a regulated fund.
At this stage, the fund will be able to accept transfers, rollovers and contributions.
Your fund's status will be updated again to either 'complying' or 'non-complying' after lodgment of its first annual return. A notice of compliance will be issued at this stage if your fund is determined to be a complying fund.
Sections within SMSF regulation
Last Modified: Tuesday, 7 May 2013