New Audit Report released by ATO on 26th June 2017
The new audit report is effective for reporting periods starting on or after 1 July 2016. Auditors may use this new report for audits to be completed for earlier periods.
Below are the main inclusions in the new report:
1) Independence issues listed in APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants must considered by an Auditor before accepting any new engagement; All auditor engagements must now be in accordance with ASAE 3100 Compliance Engagements issued by the AASB.
2) Increased responsibility of SMSF trustees in preparing financial report to include "going concern concept" and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees intend to wind up the fund;
3) Increased responsibility of the SMSF Auditor to indentify material misstatement due to fraud or error, understanding of internal control, evaluation of appropriateness of accounting policies used, conclusion on the trustees use of the going concern basis of accounting & evaluation of overall presentation, structure and content of the financial report;
There is no major changes in the compliance part of the audit report, which means that the auditor needs to ensure the same sections of SISA and SIS Regulations are being compiled by the fund as they were in previous year.
There are two reduced responsibilities of the auditor
i) Testing of the fund under Section 62: The auditor is no longer required to test if the fund is established solely for the provision of retirement benefits for the fund members or their dependents and
ii) Check if the compliance of fund's investments are made in line with the investment strategy of the fund.
Our take of the new audit report is as follows:-
For 2017 audits, SMSF Auditors...
a) now should be very careful in taking on new engagements and must ensure that all new engagements comply to ASAE 3100 specially in the area of reasonable & limited assurance engagements, ethical requirements, quality control, understanding of the fund before commencing audit & measuring materiality and compliance engagement risks;
b) ensure all engagements are as per the independence requirements of APES 110;
c) can now be made responsible for not being able to detect fraud which may involve trustee collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control;
d) must amend / upgrade their engagement, management & trustee representation letters and ensure that the financial statements are prepared and contain the provisions of the new audit report e.g. going concern basis of accounting etc.
Improvments to our Online Software
We recently upgraded our working papers and Tab A - G in areas of i) testing for fraud. ii) auditors testing the fund is a going concern or not and iii) auditors ensuring that no material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the fund’s ability to continue as a going concern. In our opinion our working papers are adequate and comply to the new audit report and no medications are required.
Having said that, please be assured that we are working on all our working paper and our checklist Tabs to ensure that changes in Super Law from 1st July 2017 are incorporated in your audit. Please make note that most of the changes for audit purposes will be for the financial year ended 30th June 2018, but there are some changes in regards to contributions and commutations of pensions etc on 30th June 2017, which will affect our 2017 audit checklist. We will communicate with you, when those changes are made to the online portal.
More importantly our standard engagement letter, trustee representative and management letter, will need a bit of tweaking as certain clauses / points have to be included to comply with some of the new requirements of 2017 version of the audit report.
The new audit report, amended engagement letter, trustee engagement and management letter should be available online before Friday 14th July 2017. Once we have made these changes, we will inform you.
We highly recommend for audits for financial year ended 30th June 2017, auditors get trustees to sign off newer version of the engagement and trustee representation letter, when made available, even for continued engagements.
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Tax Deduction for Audit expenses - 30th June 2017 Opportunity
If you are after some discounts on our fees or looking for a tax deduction for this financial year, you can purchase an audit pack of more than one fund. Our audit packs do not have an expiry date.
If you audit 100 funds in a year and if you purchase an Audit Pack of 300 funds, your credit will last three year. Our smart system counts and inform you the number of funds you have audited each time you commence a new audit.
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Melbourne Seminar - 10th August 2017 - Stamford Collins Street
MORNING SESSION
Timings : 09:00 am to 12:30 pm
CGT Relief on Pension Assets & Estate Planning 101
One of the greatest changes under the new super laws is arguably how transfer balance cap effects the payment of death benefits to spouses. This is because many members who exceed the cap can longer simply pay all of their death benefits to their spouse in the form of the pension. This means that careful planning is now required for members affected, or potentially affected, by the cap.
Cost: The fee for seminar is $165Incl. GST and is tax deductible(Plus Travel).
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9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
CGT Relief on Pension assets
1. New $1.6M transfer balance cap
2. Excess transfer balance penalties
3. CGT cost base relief
4. TRIS issues and removal of tax benefits
5. Lump sums and minimum pension requirements
6. Internal commutations - how do they work?
7. Key issues, actions and strategies pre 30 June 2017
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11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Succession & Estate Planning 101
1. How the transfer balance cap works for death benefits?
2. Death benefit pensions Vs reversionary pensions
3. Why should existing pensions be converted into automatically reversionary pensions?
4. Dealing with the liquidity crunch on the death of the first spouse including in-specie death benefit payments
5. Implications for estate planning for TRISs
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12.30 PM to 1.30 PM Lunch
AFTERNOON SESSION
Do more with less
Let us show you... How to reduce SMSF Audit time in half! - 4 CPD hours in SMSF Audit
Cost: $165Incl. GST and is tax deductible(Plus Travel)
- Audit fund online
- Meet and Exceed Professional requirement
- How to bring in efficiency in a Audit
- Increase your bottom line
- Full Demo of www.onlinesmsfaudit.com.au
Why Audit on Cloud
SMSF Auditors spend too much time in financial audit and completing manual audit working papers, our online software does most of this work automatically & saves half your time as compared to traditional auditing methods. It checks closing share prices, dividends received from ASX and all mundane tasks of signing, scanning & mailing of audit report, Mgt. letter, engagement letter, Invoice & contravention reports etc. are automated with one click of a mouse
Embrace an efficient framework for high quality audits and conduct audits on a flawless workflow Management system.
Achieve peace of mind & confidence of knowing that you are using a completely up-to-date online checklist and cloud process to deliver a robust, hassle free top quality SMSF audit. Improve communication with accountants & trustees. Manage 20 or 2000 audits by streamlining workflow from our smart Audit Manager & establish seamless communication between all parties. Our online SMSF audit system is the only tool which can deliver reliability, speed and volume and ultimately profits for your business at a fraction of the cost.
Benefits of Cloud Auditing
Audit from anywhere, anytime from any device on your own website or by integrating with ours. Increase audit effectiveness, add value, reduce audit risk, drive SMSF compliance, revolutionise your business
Included in the fee is an account to audit10 SMSF on the online platform worth $187
Those auditors who are already using the online software will benefit by learning new shortcuts and other advanced features of the online software.
Recommended For : All SMSF ASIC approved auditors.
CPD Hours
4 CPD hours under self assessment method under RG 243.88 - 90 for Audit of SMSF.
This activity has been accredited for continuing professional development by the Financial Planning Association of Australia but does not constitute FPA’s endorsement of the activity.
Accreditation number 008743 for 4 hours. Professional Dimensions Capability 2 Hours Professional Conduct 2 Hours - Knowledge Areas; 4 Hours SMSF.
SPEAKER: Mr Manoj Abichandani
Manoj has worked in SMSF since 1988 and is SMSF Specialist (UNSW). He was providing high level advisory services to over 600 funds in his own 3 partner CPA tax practice for 19 years and has written this online software. He currently works as SMSF Technical Support Team Leader at www.trustdeed.com.au
He has hands on knowledge on what happens in a tax practice on complex SMSF practical issues.