If my accountant looks after my SMSF, am I still responsible?

Yes. You can hand the work to an accountant, and most trustees sensibly do, but the responsibility for the fund stays with you. A South Australian court made that point again in 2026, and it cost one trustee a conviction.

That sounds heavier than it is day to day. Staying on the right side of it mostly comes down to knowing what you’re signing, and acting when something hasn’t happened. This piece covers both, plus what we do at WE. SMSF so our trustees don’t find out the hard way.

What happened in the South Australian case?

The trustee had run his fund since 2007, as director of its corporate trustee. For around ten years he had used the same registered accountant to lodge his personal, business and SMSF returns. The fund’s annual returns for the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years were never lodged.

It wasn’t a surprise to him. Between 2022 and 2024 the ATO phoned him several times about the missing returns, and each time he checked with his accountant and was told they would be lodged. In August 2024 the ATO issued a formal notice requiring the returns by 18 October 2024. They still weren’t lodged.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to comply with a tax obligation (s 8C(1)(a) Taxation Administration Act 1953, the offence of not giving the Commissioner a document when the law requires it). It’s an absolute liability offence, so his accountant’s failure was no defence to the charge. The Magistrate recorded a conviction and fined him $3,891.

He appealed to the Supreme Court. He argued that the Magistrate should have let him off without a conviction (a discretion under s 19B of the Crimes Act 1914), because his accountant had accepted full responsibility and the prosecution had accepted that he couldn’t have completed the returns himself. The Court dismissed the appeal (Schmidt v The King (Cth) [2026] SASC 101). The Magistrate had said the problem went on long enough for him to make more enquiries, or engage another accountant. The Supreme Court agreed that wasn’t hindsight: he’d known something was wrong since 2021.

It’s an ordinary story. That’s what makes it useful.

Two things in it are worth sitting with. The accountant owning the mistake didn’t shift the liability, because the obligation to lodge belonged to the trustee. And asking wasn’t enough. He did ask, repeatedly, and kept getting the same answer. The Magistrate’s point, which the Supreme Court upheld, was that over that length of time he could have pushed further or moved to another accountant.

His counsel also argued that SMSF returns can only be done by an accountant. The Court didn’t need to decide that. In general, though, trustees can lodge their fund’s return themselves, through business software or on paper, once the audit is finished. What they can’t do is skip the audit: every SMSF must have an approved SMSF auditor appointed for each income year (s 35C SIS Act, which also requires trustees to hand the auditor requested documents within 14 days of a written request).

Why does the law put it on the trustee?

Because an SMSF is a trust, and you are its trustee. Every member of an SMSF is generally a trustee, or a director of the company that acts as trustee (a corporate trustee), and the fund’s obligations sit with the trustees together.

The core duties are written into every fund’s governing rules by law, as the trustee covenants (s 52B SIS Act, which includes the duties to act honestly, to exercise the care, skill and diligence of an ordinary prudent person, and to act in the best financial interests of the fund’s beneficiaries). Directors of a corporate trustee carry their own covenant as well, to take reasonable care that the company keeps those covenants (s 52C SIS Act). Engaging someone to do the work doesn’t contract you out of any of them.

You also signed up to this in writing. Within 21 days of becoming a trustee (or a director of the trustee company), you sign the ATO’s trustee declaration (NAT 71089), confirming you understand your duties. It stays with the fund’s records for at least 10 years.

And the penalties are personal. The ATO can impose administrative penalties on trustees for a range of breaches, and those penalties are paid by the trustee personally (they can’t be paid or reimbursed from the fund). Where the trustee is a company, the directors can be jointly liable (ss 166, 168 and 169 SIS Act).

Separately, a fund that lodges late can face a failure-to-lodge penalty. There’s a limited safe harbour where you gave your registered tax agent everything they needed on time and the agent was the one who missed the date (s 286-75 Schedule 1 Taxation Administration Act 1953, which leaves it to you to show that). It covers that penalty only. That case was a criminal prosecution, and the safe harbour doesn’t reach prosecutions.

None of this makes an accountant pointless. The accountant does the work. You stay the person the law holds to account for it.

What am I actually signing each year?

Most trustees sign a small pile of documents once a year and file them away. Each one is a statement you’re making as trustee, so knowing what it says is the most practical oversight you have.

In a typical year that pile includes:

• The financial statements, which trustees must prepare each year, with the fund’s assets valued at market value (s 35B SIS Act; reg 8.02B SISR).
• A representation letter to the auditor, confirming that the records you’ve given the auditor are complete and that the fund has followed the rules.
• Minutes and resolutions recording the year’s trustee decisions, which must be kept for at least 10 years (s 103 SIS Act).
• The investment strategy, which trustees must formulate, give effect to and review regularly (s 52B(2)(f) SIS Act; reg 4.09 SISR).
• The declaration on the SMSF annual return, where you confirm the return is true and correct before it’s lodged, including when a tax agent lodges it for you. The ATO expects trustees to review the audit before they sign it.

If any of these turns up without a word on what it is, ask. A good accountant will be glad you did.

How would I know if my fund was falling behind?

Take Maria. She and her husband Tony set up their SMSF in 2014 with a corporate trustee, and the same accountant has looked after it ever since. The paperwork usually came for signing each autumn. For the last two years it didn’t, and Maria assumed it was just running late.

She finds out when a rollover from Tony’s old industry fund stalls. The fund’s details on Super Fund Lookup (the public register other funds and employers check before sending money) now read “Regulation details removed”, because its returns are overdue. A letter from the ATO follows.

Nothing Maria did was dishonest. She trusted a routine that had worked for years, and nobody told her it had stopped. The fix is still hers to drive: getting the overdue returns prepared, audited and lodged. Once they’re in, Super Fund Lookup updates automatically within a few days.

The warning signs were there, and they’re the same ones for any fund:

• You haven’t signed last year’s financial statements or return by autumn, when a fund lodged through a tax agent is typically due by 15 May.
• You haven’t seen an audit report for the last completed year.
• Questions about the fund go unanswered for weeks at a time, or get the same “it’s nearly done” answer more than once.
• Letters or calls from the ATO about the fund arrive unexpectedly.
• Super Fund Lookup shows your fund as anything other than “Complying” or “Registered”.

Super Fund Lookup is free and public at superfundlookup.gov.au, and it takes about a minute. You can also see the fund’s lodgment history through the ATO’s Online services for business.

That was the point in the South Australian case too. The problem ran long enough that the trustee could have done something about it. Noticing is the first half of the job. The second half is not accepting the same answer twice.

What should a good accountant be doing to keep me informed?

Whoever looks after your fund, you should be able to answer three questions at any point in the year. When was the last return lodged? When was the last audit completed? What’s due next, and when?

If you can’t, that’s the conversation to have. Asking is the part of the job that can’t be handed over, and a good accountant will expect the question.

What do we do at WE. SMSF?

This is how we run it for our own trustees.

When a fund comes to us, we ask about its lodgment history during onboarding, then check it against the ATO’s records once we’re linked as the fund’s tax agent. A trustee who’s switching should know early whether anything is outstanding, before the new year’s work starts.

Each year the signing pack comes with a short note explaining what each document is and what you’re declaring by signing it.

We aim to have the audit finished and the return lodged well before the 15 May due date for most funds, and the earlier the better. The audit is done by an independent, ASIC-registered SMSF auditor.

When it’s done, I email you to confirm the audit is complete and the return has been lodged, with the audit report attached for your records.

Around March or April there’s a mid-year check-in on contribution status, pension minimums and any dates coming up for your fund.

If something is going to be late, we tell you before the due date, with the reason and the new timing.

The aim is simple. You should never hear about your own fund from the ATO first.

Where does that leave you?

Using an accountant makes sense for most trustees, and nothing in the South Australian case suggests otherwise. What it shows is that the arrangement works best when you know what’s meant to happen each year, and you act when it doesn’t.

If you’re not sure where your fund stands right now, that’s quick to find out.