Letters sent by the ATO to nearly 18,000 SMSFs may serve as a warning to a far greater number of funds with similar strategies, an SMSF expert has claimed.

A specialist document provider has revealed many trustees have already been reassessing their investment strategies as a result of the ATO’s letter querying the investment strategy of 17,700 SMSFs invested in a single asset or asset class.

A major accounting body has made recommendations as to how SMSF auditors, administrators and tax agents can play a role in the ATO’s scrutiny of investment strategies.

Trustees who have received letters as part of the ATO probe into the investment strategies of SMSFs should not assume they are non-compliant, an SMSF expert says.

A specialist SMSF lawyer has described the ATO’s decision to scrutinise the investment strategy of certain funds as no cause for alarm.