Recent figures provided by the ATO indicate that at 4 May, only 60 per cent of SMSFs have lodged their return for the 2017–18 financial year.
The ATO has previously flagged that many SMSFs will need to lodge by 15 May this year, leaving just a few days for the remaining funds to complete the lodgement of their SMSF annual return.
Some funds will have slightly longer, with the ATO stating that the due date for annual returns that are non-taxable or received a refund in the latest year and are non-taxable or will receive a refund in the current year will be due 5 June this year.
The ATO noted that while the lodgement rate was only at 60 per cent on 4 May, at the same time last year, only 57 per cent of expected SMSF returns had been lodged.
“Based on previous year’s trend, approximately 86 per cent of all SMSFs lodge on time,” an ATO spokesperson told SMSF Adviser.
The ATO also pointed out that it was not unusual to see a significant number of SMSF lodgements within days of the due date.
“We will be closely monitoring the lodgements that come in as we move closer to the due date,” the ATO said.
By mid-June last year, around 65 per cent of lodgements had been completed. However, the SMSF sector received an extension to 30 June last year.
SMSF professionals and their clients faced a number of hurdles with lodgements for the 2016–17 financial year including the commencement of TBAR reporting and other super reforms.
A variety of reasons. But resources may play a big part. Automation is actually not automatic for SMSF data entry. Angary Accountant is quite correct that anyone simply trusting data feeds will not produce an accurate product. The allocation for franking, deferrals etc are all down to the person finalising the work. Be warned, that the staff available to work in this field are shrinking. The misbelief that data-feeds solve-all, the cost cutting by the big players, offshoring, the who-ha over 3 yearly audit cycles and the constant raft of legislative changes are all making this a painful process and people are simply exiting this space! The quality of work will suffer and the auditors are sadly being asked to carry the can with the pressure of fewer of them, and lower quality work coming through and higher expectations for all concerned. Most recently the ATO are making suggestions to auditors about the EXTRAs now required QC58762 for TBAR. Just another milstone. So no wonder that this whole process is taking longer – people are doing more work for the one job than ever before. Thank-you government for the red-tape that clogs this system!
Super17 was a watershed moment for SMSFs and the industry is still playing catch-up. It stands to reason that the extra work required for FY17 (along with the extended lodgement date) was going to put administrators behind. They started on the back foot for FY18 and had the added pleasure of TBA reporting.
The workload is a part of the problem but also, there must be a mind set away from the ‘retrospective approach’. Much of FY17 could have been handled better with a more pro-active approach – it wasn’t a ‘business as usual year’.
That year is done, but TBAR remains, and necessitates more immediacy. In my view, the profession has to shift toward real-time or, contemporaneous thinking if it wants to manage the lodgement list efficiently.
You can lodge a return early and even if payable the due date is still May 15 so whoever thinks this is the reason is likely incorrect. The real reason is larger players eroding the margin in the market making it harder for people to compete and adequately staff and in some cases ironically those larger cookie cutter firms are miles behind – they should be held to account for repeated lat lodging.
Accountants don’t hold off lodging SMSF returns until the due date where tax is payable. You can lodge a SMSF return at any time earlier in the year, and you still have until 15 May to make the tax payment. The ATO no longer issues notices of assessment for SMSFs. You just pay the self assessed amount when it’s due!
That is true but there are still reasons to hold off lodgement. It affects PAYG instalments. We lodged most of our payables in April after the March PAYG instalments were issued, where the result would have been an increase in the instalment.
Most late lodgements are due to clients providing their work late. Well that my experience and the experience of a lot of my colleagues. Would you like to prosecute them?? Or is this just an issue with accountants??
Unsurprising – many funds which are managed closely will actually lodge on the last day, which is when the tax payable will also become automatically due. This is actually a benefit that good administrators can provide with the best real time software.
Once again SMSF Trustees have been let down by administrators whose service standards are getting worse each year.
How in these days of specialised superannuation software, data-feeds, artificial intelligence & an abundance of offshore resources can a result like this occur?
Most accountants hold off lodging payable returns until the last few days. It will be much higher by the end of the week. Also, all those things don’t stop clients not answering queries, or sending things in on the 10th of May expecting it to be done immediately. Besides, the data needs to be checked and reconciled to third party confirmations. A computer can’t do this. Maybe the computer could where they client has only listed shares, but I find that is generally not the case. We are a long way from fully automated processing.
I am a SMSF accountant and just very annoyed by your comment. 1. software is always full of bugs 2. data-feeds are not audit-proof 3. AI is still very crappy unless you are willing to accept whatever the computer says and do not use your due diligence 4. offshore resources have risk of info security and the quality of their work varies. But do you know the most important reason why we have this sort of lodgement rate? Some clients just assume we have everything and won’t give us the info we need until millions time of chasing up and we stick up to their arse and say due date is tomorrow.
An appalling result.
So much for all of the improved platforms with their AI that is supposed to save time.
Something is not correct. Its about time the ATO / TPB stepped up to the plate and started prosecuting agents who fail to meet this basic task of lodging funds on time.
Many clients pay monthly fees up front for a service that administrators are not providing. This is tantamount to theft.