Miss this Deadline by One Day and You Will Pay Another Year of Fees.

There are lots of good reasons for owning and operating a self-managed super fund, including if you are self-employed being able to own your commercial premises with your SMSF and pay rent directly from your business to the fund.

However, times have moved on. Many of the reasons that once made SMSF so popular have been superseded by better and cheaper retail super funds offered by investment platforms such as HUB24 and Netwealth just to name two.

These platforms can give the owners of their superannuation accounts much the same level of control over the underlying investments and visibility that was once only available by setting up your own fund.

Importantly, some SMSFs just somehow outlive their usefulness. They can become very time-consuming, requiring at least annual and often more frequent visits to your accountant or compliance manager.

They are also increasingly expensive with accounting fees ever on the rise along with high compliance costs, actuarial fees and supervisory fees, fees that are only going to get more expensive, not less in future.

Finally, there is the added stress of managing the underlying investment to ensure they are appropriate and that they are generating a reasonable amount of money particularly if you are reliant on a regular income stream from your fund.

If you are getting fed up with the time and expense that your SMSF is consuming then now is the time to act, to ensure it is closed by the end of this financial year.

Failure to meet this June 30 deadline, even if it is by just one day, will mean that you will incur another year’s worth of expenses, regardless of how agreeable or accommodating your accountant is.

It will take your accountant several weeks to complete all the tasks required to close the fund as well as time for you to create an alternative super fund account to roll those savings into.

So today or early May is really the latest you can reasonably give instructions to your accountant to close your SMSF and have this work completed before the end of this financial year.

Again, if you are concerned as to exactly what to do, please contact my office as we are very experienced in doing just this, working with your accountant to close your SMSF and have the funds in a new super account before the end of the financial year.