You should regularly review your circumstances and decide whether to continue with your SMSF or if you should wind it up.

Trustees who don’t have an exit plan are often unprepared and get caught by surprise when an unexpected event means they need to wind up their SMSF.

You need to consider the following in your SMSF’s exit plan:
▪ members’ instructions to deal with their benefits upon their death
▪ appointing an enduring power of attorney
▪ the estimated costs of winding up
▪ the liquidity of the fund’s assets for making rollovers, paying benefits and final costs
▪ whether you have a rollover capable electronic service address (ESA) as they are processed electronically
▪ whether all trustees can access the fund’s records and electronic transaction accounts.

Once an SMSF is wound up, you can reactivate it.

When winding up your SMSF, you can disregard your fund’s trust deed.

You must get agreement from all trustees to wind up the SMSF.

When winding up your SMSF, you can sell or dispose of fund assets without much consideration.

Before you lodge your final annual return and wind up your SMSF, you must finalise any outstanding tax and compliance obligations.

The SMSF can’t be closed if there are any credit or debit balances remaining on the accounts.

If a member accesses their super before they are legally entitled, significant penalties can apply to the fund and the member.

If your SMSF has outstanding audits, you can disregard these so long as the fund completes a final yearly audit on wind up.

In your final SMSF annual return (SAR), complete all sections relevant to the fund’s wind up. This lets the ATO know it will be your final return.

Lodging your final SMSF annual return will notify all third parties that your fund is closed.

When winding up your SMSF, your last task is to close your fund’s bank account.

As a trustee, it is your responsibility to ensure proper and accurate tax and super records are kept for your SMSF.

Even if you use an SMSF professional to help with your fund, responsibility for the fund still rests with you.

The ATO and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) are co-regulators of the SMSF sector.