ATO open for SMSF member increases

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has confirmed trustees of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) will now be able to add a fifth and sixth members, after administrative delays.

The changes came into place on 1 July, 2021, but the Australian Business Register (ABR) suffered delays in allowing trustees to make this change and recommended trustees held off from adding new members.

Trustees were advised to check if their state or territory restricted the number of trustees and if the addition would affect any other regulatory requirements.

The ATO said: “The increase in the maximum number of members in a SMSF also has flow on effects for other requirements, such as signing financial statements. The accounts and statements (an operating statement and a statement of financial position) of an SMSF must be signed by the required number of trustees or directors of the corporate trustee.

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“This number will depend on the number of trustees or directors of the corporate trustee that your SMSF has. For the 2021/22 and later financial years, if there are:

• One or two directors or individual trustees, then all of them must sign the documents; and
• Three or more directors or individual trustees, then at least half of them must sign the documents.”