Disqualified SMSF trustees grow by 300% in 1H23
The number of disqualified self-managed superannuation fund trustees for the first half of the financial year is four times higher than a year ago.
Speaking at the SMSF Association national conference in Melbourne, Peter Burgess, deputy chief executive of the SMSF Association, said there had been 389 disqualified trustees in the first half of 2022/23.
This compared to just 88 during the first half of the 2021/22 financial year.
Burgess said: “We’ve seen some statistics and it is not good news for our sector.
“We've had 389 disqualified trustees in the first half and this trend is four times higher than the same time last year. And this trend has continued to 2023, there's been over 104 trustees disqualified in 2023 so across the board, that’s about 500 SMSF trustees who have been disqualified this financial year.”
A large proportion of these related to illegal early access where members were accessing their money early in order to pay for cars, holidays and businesses while others were penalised for failing to file their SMSF annual return.
Of the 28,000 SMSFs which were established in 2020/21, 20% of them had failed to file their first annual return.
Burgess said: “The one thing that’s going to stop this sector from achieving its full potential are people in SMSFs who are doing the wrong thing.
“All professionals in our industry have to make sure clients understand the preservation rules and they understand their reporting obligations.”
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Laura Dew is editor at Super Review. Prior to joining SR, she spent five years working at Investment Week in the UK covering asset and wealth management.
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