Certain SMSF audits commenced before 1 July 2021 but have not been able to be completed prior to 30 June 2021 have been affected by the amended auditor independence requirements stipulated in APES 110.
“If you started your audit in June but you hadn’t finished it by 30 June 2021, then you actually need a different auditor to sign off on that audit report if you don’t satisfy the independence requirements as at that date,” Super Sphere director Belinda Aisbett told delegates at the SMSF Association Virtual Technical Summit 2021 today.
“So if you were doing your audits in-house and you were getting as many as you could get done up until that point come 30 June, that’s the hard cut-off and you’ll need somebody else to finalise that file for you.”
Aisbett also took the opportunity to remind practitioners they need to use the new audit report the ATO recently released for all audits conducted after 1 July.
She stipulated this new audit report has to be used regardless of the financial year to which the audit applies.
To illustrate this point, she shared her own situation where her firm has just taken on a couple of new clients with audits stemming from a significant number of past financial years needing to be conducted.
“I’ve got the joyous task at the moment of [performing audits] for two funds [going] back to 1998. So when I finally sign off [those audits from] 1998 all the way to 2021, I have to use the ATO’s current version audit report,” she said.
“Prior to [the ATO] releasing this [new] audit report I would’ve gone back and used the 1998 audit report and every other audit report the ATO had released from that point.
“But my process in the office has to change now. So regardless of the year, you have to use the current audit report.”
