A senior sector specialist has suggested using dedicated SMSF administration platforms may give practitioners and trustees an advantage when managing the additional procedures associated with the new Division 296 tax.
In particular, Accurium head of SMSF education Mark Ellem said this would potentially be the case if trustees decided to take advantage of the capital gains tax (CGT) adjustment allowable under the Division 296 policy.
“The question is who is going to keep a record of the Division 296 asset cost base if the trustees elect to set one? This is the same issue we faced back at 30 June 2017 when the CGT cost base was reset for the introduction of the transfer balance cap,” Ellem told attendees of SMSF Professionals Day 2026 in Brisbane on Monday.
“I am aware the administration providers, such as Class, are working on putting in place a separate Division 296 cost-base recording feature within the platform.”
Further, he pointed out another critical operational aspect of the new tax liability could also be made easier through being a client of one of these service providers.
“Here’s the real fun question: who is going to calculate the Division 296 modified capital gain or capital loss? Again I can see the specialist administration platforms doing that automatically for you,” he indicated.
According to Ellem, SMSFs holding investments in wrap platforms will have an additional challenge and face the situation where a decision is required as to how this new level of record-keeping will be managed should the cost-base adjustment option be exercised.
“If you’re only recording the one line for the single asset, who is going to keep that record?” he asked.
“So it’s something to think about in your practices and in your firms if you are doing the admin or accounting for SMSFs, that is: what funds do you have that have investments via wraps and platforms and what’s your record-keeping approach to them?
“Will it be reported on one line or will it be ignored and how are you going to keep a record of those Div 296 cost-base settings?”
There is still time to register for the online component of the SMSF Professionals Day 2026 to be held on 28 May. Please click here to secure your seat for the final presentations of the event.
Darin Tyson-Chan
Editor
Darin is the founder and publisher of Benchmark Media, an independent publishing house whose mastheads include financialobserver, selfmanagedsuper and smstrusteenews. He has been covering the financial services space for over a decade and in this time he has worked for a variety of trade publications. Darin has also written for the Money section published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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