The Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Amendment (ASIC Fees) Bill 2018, which will enable ASIC to charge additional fees in relation to an application to vary or revoke the conditions or cancel the registration of an approved SMSF auditor, has now been passed by the Senate.
Under the new ASIC funding model, ASIC intends to charge auditors $899 when they apply to exit the sector. Currently, there is no fee where an SMSF auditor makes a request for their registration to be cancelled, and there is no fee applied where an auditor is disqualified. In short, it will be less costly for auditors to be forcibly removed than if they elect to leave.
ASIC also intends to increase the SMSF auditor registration fee from $107 for new SMSF auditors up to $1,927.
The proposed hikes in fees for SMSF auditors has received considerable backlash from both SMSF auditors and the wider SMSF industry with BDO audit partner Shirley Schaefer labeling the fee hike as a “cash grab”.
IPA chief executive Andrew Conway said not only is ASIC overcharging, but the government is double-dipping.
“The ATO currently already collects $259 from each SMSF to finance the SMSF monitoring role the ATO conducts on behalf of ASIC. While this levy was a mere $45 in 2008 it now equates to approximately $142.5 million to monitor the sector including SMSF auditors,” said Mr Conway.
What absolute hypocracy by these idiots who we are supposed to be following to set an example in managing the superannuation sector.
After my 45 years of working in superannuation these are some of the worst rulings i have witnessed and no wonder good hard working auditors ans accountants are pulling out. Personally i don’t trust the Governments motives one bit.
ASIC has confirmed to me that you cannot nominate a date to be de-registered as an auditor. The date that applies is the date that they issue a notice of cancellation of registration. So it appears impossible to cease as an auditor, lodge the form today and not pay the fee of $899. I am now not going to renew my registration in July and let them do the work of deregistering me. I also don’t like the 3 year audit proposal so am giving up SMSF auditing completely..
You would have to think they are trying to shake loose the smaller firms conducting audits. Moving to a 3 year audit cycle and obscene fees will make it nearly impossible for smaller companies to maintain appropriate levels of skills or staff. The end result will be quality of work will suffer. Typical bonehead decisions by our leaders that will only create more work for the regulators as compliant operators exit the market due to the incompetent regulation happening in this country.
So, on one hand there is a proposal to reduce SMSF audits to 3 years and, in readiness for the natural shake out of the industry that will occur, ASIC now has the legislation to charge the exiting auditor $900.
I can see many auditors will just forget about lodging their annual declarations once they stop auditing and let ASIC do the work of deregistering them.
How can any government impose fees on individuals that exit an industry? Is it a form of run-out insurance – please explain.