What does an SMSF cost to run?
Four things, every year, and most quotes only show you one of them. Here is the whole picture, including the two charges no accountant can absorb.
- Chartered Accountants
- Registered tax agent
- Independent audit included
The four costs
1. Accounting and compliance
Financial statements, member statements, investment reconciliation and the SMSF annual return. This is the fee you are quoted, and it varies with what the fund holds rather than with how large it is. A fund of listed shares and cash costs less to administer than one holding property, and considerably less than one with a borrowing arrangement.
2. The independent audit
Every SMSF must be audited every year by a registered SMSF auditor who is independent of the accountant who prepared the accounts. It is a legal requirement, not a service level, so every fund pays it. The question worth asking is whether it is inside the fee you were quoted or billed on afterwards. Ours is inside.
3. The ATO SMSF supervisory levy
A flat annual charge, paid by the fund with its annual return. It is set by government, every fund pays the same amount, and no accountant absorbs it.
4. The ASIC annual review fee
Only if the fund has a corporate trustee, and then it is payable by that company every year. A fund with individual trustees does not pay it. How the two trustee structures differ.
Costs 3 and 4 are government charges. They sit outside any fee an accountant quotes, and anyone whose fee covers everything has either forgotten them or is hoping you will.
What else can appear
Not every year, and not every fund, but worth knowing before they arrive.
- Setting the fund up, once, at the start. What that involves and how long it takes.
- Bringing overdue years up to date, quoted separately from the annual fee.
- An actuarial certificate, where a fund has members in both accumulation and pension phase.
- LRBA and bare trust documentation, if the fund borrows to buy an asset.
- Deed amendments, when the deed needs updating.
- ATO reviews, contraventions and rectification, which are the expensive kind and the reason the compliance work matters.
- Winding the fund up, once, at the end.
What we charge
Published, by tier, with the independent audit and the annual return inside every one.
Listed shares, ETFs, managed funds and cash, with data feeds. Accumulation phase.
- Financial and member statements
- Independent audit
- Annual return lodged
- Named accountant, two-day replies
Members in pension phase, one property, or unlisted investments.
- Financial and member statements
- Independent audit
- Annual return lodged
- Named accountant, two-day replies
Borrowing (LRBA), multiple properties, crypto or related-party arrangements.
- Financial and member statements
- Independent audit
- Annual return lodged
- Named accountant, two-day replies
Year-round keeps your fund's balances and contributions visible all year rather than after it ends. All fees are GST inclusive and include your independent audit and the ATO annual return.
The question that tells you most
When you are comparing accountants, the fee is the least informative number on the page. Ask what is inside it. A fee that excludes the audit is not cheaper, it is incomplete, and you will find out which in about eleven months.
The same goes for the two government charges. They are not large, but a first year that arrives with two charges nobody mentioned is a bad start to a relationship that is supposed to last a decade. The other questions worth asking before you commit.
Where we stop
This page describes what a self managed super fund costs to administer. It is general and factual. Whether an SMSF is worth running for you, at your balance, is a different question, it requires an Australian financial services licence to answer, and Cake SMSF does not hold one. We do the accounting and the compliance, and we never tell anyone whether to have a fund.
Your fund should never be an afterthought.
Book a 15-minute call. We'll tell you what your fund costs to run with us, before you commit to anything.