Around 330 SMSF auditors performed checks on nearly three-quarters of all funds in the 2023 financial year, with a substantial majority of practitioners charging a few hundred dollars for their work, the latest ATO figures on the sector have shown.
According to the recently released “SMSF: A statistical overview 2022-23”, there were 3166 SMSF auditors during that financial year and 22.1 per cent performed audits on less than five funds, while 41.9 per cent did so on five to 50 funds. A further 25.5 per cent of auditors examined 51 to 250 funds, while the remaining 10.5 per cent audited more than 250 SMSFs.
The ATO stated the work conducted by this last group represented 73.7 per cent of total SMSF audits for 2022/23, while those auditors dealing with 51 to 250 funds represented 19.8 per cent of all reviews.
Collectively these two cohorts of auditors reviewed 93.5 per cent of all SMSFs in 2022/23, with that figure only slightly increasing over the five years from 2018/19 when it was 89.7 per cent
While this overall figure remained relatively static, those performing audits on more than 250 funds increased their share of work from 2018/19, when they conducted 59.1 per cent of all reviews, while those working on 51 to 250 SMSFs saw their share of work decline from 30.6 per cent in that financial year.
The statistics also showed audit fees remained steady for the five-year period, with a median figure of $550 and average charge of $641 for 2022/23, with the latter number declining from $687 in 2018/19.
Around 40 per cent of all audits were charged a fee under $500, while 50 per cent cost between $500 and $999. Only 9.1 per cent of funds were charged $1000 to $1999 and 1.3 per cent had a fee of $2000 or more.
The ATO statistics also showed the level of auditors continued to decline in the 2023 financial year, falling from 3563 in 2021/22 and from 5143 over the preceding five years. However, ATO acting deputy commissioner Paul Delahunty recently stated these figures had rebounded and there were now 4100 qualified SMSF auditors.
