Holding professionals to a higher standard

When a tax professional makes the decision to start a self-managed super fund (SMSF), they are held to a higher standard.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) recently affirmed our decision in WZWK and Commissioner of Taxation (Taxation) [2023] AATA 872 (26 April 2023)External Link to amend tax assessments, impose tax shortfall penalties and disqualify a trustee following an ATO audit. The trustee, who was the sole member of the SMSF, was also a Chartered Accountant and an approved SMSF auditor.

Our audit found the trustee was breaching the payment standards by illegally making payments from the SMSF to himself as a member which did not meet a condition of release.

Consequently, we amended the member’s 2015 and 2016 personal income tax assessments to include these payments in their assessable income. This resulted in them owing around $413,000 in additional tax and over $179,000 in tax shortfall penalties because they had made false and misleading statements in their income tax returns.

Following our audit, we referred the trustee to the:

• Australian Security and Investments Commission (ASIC) who disqualified them as an approved SMSF auditor
• Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) who terminated their tax agent registration.

We take non-compliance seriously and will continue to hold tax professionals to a higher standard when it comes to complying with income tax and super laws when managing a SMSF.

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