Education

Every self-managed super fund must lodge an annual return each financial year, even when it owes no tax. A fund that is closing is no different: the last return is the signal that tells the ATO the fund has wound up. With the 2026 …

An approved SMSF auditor must sign off a fund's final year before the closing return is lodged. It is one of the few steps in a wind-up that trustees cannot do themselves, and it depends on evidence only trustees can supply. Leaving it late …

The most common reason an SMSF wind-up drags on is not a complicated asset. It is a loose financial thread: an unpaid invoice, a tax balance that has not cleared, a refund heading to a closed bank account. Tidying these up in the right …

When an SMSF closes, each member's money has to go somewhere. For many members, the destination is an APRA-regulated super fund such as a retail or industry fund. The rollover itself is routine, but the surrounding steps, especially timing and reporting, are where errors …

Super is preserved until a member meets a condition of release, and an SMSF's trustees are the ones who have to decide whether that has happened. Paying a benefit too early can have serious consequences for both the member and the trustees. The question …

The trust deed is the fund's rulebook, and in a wind-up it can shape almost every decision. Super law sets the outer limits, but within those limits the deed decides things such as whether assets can be passed to members rather than sold and …

Winding up an SMSF can feel like a clean break, but it is not. Trustees stay accountable for how the fund was run, and for how it is closed. That is the clear message of the ATO's guidance, and it is one that trustees …