An ASIC spokesperson told SMSF Adviser that as of 19 November, the corporate regulator has received 204 applications for a limited licence. This is an increase of 16 applications since 22 October this year.
ASIC has now approved 78 applications, up from 74 as of last month.
However, 101 applications have also been rejected or withdrawn, an increase of nine rejections since last month.
ASIC stresses that ‘rejected’ is an administrative term and does not necessarily suggest the refusal of an application.
“[It reflects] merely that the application has been returned prior to assessment having commenced due to inadequacies in the application,” ASIC said.
There are also currently 21 applications under assessment.
The accountants’ exemption expires on 30 June next year, and ASIC is urging all accountants to have their licensing arrangements sorted by March 2016.
“Accountants who do not lodge applications which meet ASIC’s requirements by 1 March 2016 run a significant risk that their application will not be assessed before 30 June 2016,” ASIC said in a public statement in August.
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Most accountants wont be going down the road of self-licensing, opting instead for the cheaper, easier option of being an Authorised Rep under someone else’s AFSL. Most accountants that I work with are doing this.
If a client wants a SMSF refer them to a lawyer, dont get involved in passing on instructions & any inference of “dealing” in a financial product. The better law firms are organising to do that for accountant referrers.
If a trustee wants to wind up an smsf, direct them to the steps required on the ATO website. In between, accountants should get comfortable in continuing to prepare accountants & tax returns or audit for smsfs. If trustees want to know the tax & compliance laws relating to using their smsf, tell them. Implement trustees instructions & provide documentation. These are traditional accounting functions, regardless of the fruitless attempts of Govt & vested planning industry interests to morph accounting services into something more sinister. Follow these simple rules, only provide factual information to trustees, not recommendations. If ASIC ever darkens your door post 1July 2016, confidently tell them to “sod off”, there are no financial services here!
Time to call this what it is “a solution in search of a problem” There rationale for scraping the existing exemption is almost non-existent. We know this because if there was a REAL problem why would you allow 3 years to switch to the supposedly vastly superior system. Scrap the whole thing and save accountants and their clients from expending a heap of money on some utterly pointless exercise.
This is essentially the ALP’s policy why is the Coalition persisting with it given the profession has essentially spoken with their feet
204 sounds like an awfully small number of accountants taking up this option – does anyone else see this as a massive failure by the Government, Regulators and Professional Accounting bodies?