SMSF auditors will not be required to take on extra duties to assess compliance with the new Division 296 tax due to the way the impost is applied to individual super fund members, the ATO has stated.
ATO SMSF director Kellie Grant confirmed the regulator had no additional expectations on auditors as a result of the commencement of the new tax on 1 July apart from checking the underlying evidence and documentation supplied by clients to support the valuation of an asset.
Responding to a question at the recent Auditors Institute Auditors Day 2026, Grant agreed with the assessment of institute ambassador Graeme Colley that no further work would be required by auditors.
“Graham, you were asked a question around do we expect auditors to do anything more than they are doing now as a result of Division 296?” she said.
“You are right because it is a tax that is calculated on the member. We would not expect auditors to do anything more than they are doing now as far as extra audit duties that they undertake and ensuring they have valuation evidence as at 30 June is going to be really important, especially for the cost base resets.”
Colley had pointed out auditors would not have additional responsibilities because while the tax was related to superannuation, it was paid by an individual.
“There won’t be anything that you have got to do that you are not doing now because this is about income tax rules, it’s not superannuation,” he said.
“If it had to do with whether the assets met a particular standard or things like that, that’s where it would come into play, but here it’s an income tax calculation.
“The valuation of the assets is certainly an issue, but that’s for SIS (Superannuation Industry (Supervision)) rules purposes, isn’t it? It’s not for income tax purposes.
“Clients will be interested to talk to you about how the tax works, but it won’t be for the audit itself, and the release authority when it comes is no different to Division 293.
Grant emphasised the ATO would be examining whether auditors obtained sufficient appropriate audit evidence of the market value of assets ahead of the cost base adjustment after finding in 2024 around 16,000 funds with unchanged market values over three years, leading to reviews of the auditors involved.
“These reviews looked at whether the auditor obtained sufficient appropriate audit evidence of market values for the fund’s assets and then documented their opinions and conclusions in the audit file,” she added, noting the reviews have continued.
“At this financial year, those reviews are really important coming into the commencement of the Division 296 tax and the need to ensure there are robust audit and valuation evidence as at 30 June.”
