Auditors in hot water with ASIC

ASIC commissioner John Price says the corporate regulator has issued another warning to SMSF auditors who have yet to supply basic information. The warning letter says ASIC will cancel the registrations of those who fail to act soon.

“Recently, ASIC issued over 800 auditors notices that they’ve not met their annual compliance obligations, and that they face cancellation of their registration,” Mr Price said at the Institute of Public Accountants’ NSW and ACT Conference in Sydney last week.

“After we issued those notices, 626 people responded to our concerns.”

Mr Price said the remaining 185 who did not respond were sent a final warning letter, to which 133 auditors responded.

Those who fail to respond risk falling foul of their compliance obligations and could lose their SMSF auditor registration.

“The program highlights the importance of meeting their ongoing obligations to provide up-to-date contact details to regulators,” Mr Price said.

“If you don’t update your details, you may miss lodging your compliance certificate and that may lead to your registration being cancelled.”

This follows earlier announcements from the ATO that it will be upping its focus on SMSF auditors, including cheap prices and quick turnarounds and suspect situations that are not specifically covered in the independence guide.

The ATO’s Kasey Macfarlane said the SMSF auditor role is a significant “integrity check within the system”.

“If the ATO can have confidence that it is working appropriately, it gives us assurance about the compliance system more generally,” she said.