Notes from the build.
Calculations, compliance mechanics, and what we read in the ATO rulings.
- 30 Aug 2026
Shares or property in an SMSF: the paperwork, side by side
Not a word here about which asset performs. This is the other comparison: what each one asks of you as a record keeper, from valuation evidence to the 30 June price, with the ATO's own numbers on what funds actually hold. Checked against ato.gov.au, 30 August 2026.
Read → - 30 Aug 2026
The June document chase: why SMSF year-end is hard, and the dates the law actually sets
Year-end for an SMSF is a chain, not one deadline: statements before the audit, the auditor appointed 45 days before the return is due, 14 days to answer questions. The chase is a year of documents meeting that chain at once. Checked against ato.gov.au, 30 August 2026.
Read → - 29 Aug 2026
SMSF record keeping options in 2026: six ways trustees keep the books, and what each one actually holds
Spreadsheets, portfolio trackers, DIY ledger software, full admin services, the accountant-only route and SMSF Core. What each option keeps, what it costs, and who it genuinely suits. Prices checked on the vendors' own pages, 29 August 2026.
Read → - 29 Aug 2026
How to wind up an SMSF: the ATO's process step by step, and what happens to the records
The ATO's published wind-up process for trustees: trust deed, written agreement, benefits, final audit, final annual return, and the bank account you close last. Plus the part that outlives the fund: the records. Checked against ato.gov.au, 29 August 2026.
Read → - 25 Aug 2026
Move overseas and a two-year clock starts on your SMSF. Past it, the fund can be taxed at 45 percent
An SMSF must keep its central management and control ordinarily in Australia. The law allows a temporary absence of up to two years. Stay away longer, or let control move for good, and the fund can become non-complying and be taxed at 45 percent on close to its whole balance.
Read → - 21 Aug 2026
Art, wine and rare coins in an SMSF: seven days to insure, and never on your own wall
A collectable bought by your SMSF must be insured in the fund's own name within seven days, cannot hang on any wall you live behind, and needs a written storage decision kept ten years. Miss one and the penalty is 10 units, now $3,640, charged to each trustee.
Read → - 18 Aug 2026
In-house assets are capped at 5 percent, tested at 30 June. A fund can cross the line without buying anything
In-house asset breaches were 15 percent of everything SMSF auditors reported to the ATO in 2023-24. The rule allows up to 5 percent, measured on market value every 30 June, and a fund that was compliant the day it invested can breach a year later on price movement alone.
Read → - 14 Aug 2026
Your total super balance is one 30 June number, and it gates six separate SMSF rules
The 2026-27 super year turns on five dollar figures: $500,000, $1.6 million, $1.84 million, $2.1 million and $3 million. Each switches a different rule on or off, and each reads the same input: a member's total super balance at 30 June, a figure the fund itself never prints.
Read → - 11 Aug 2026
The transfer balance cap is $2.1 million. The rule forcing an SMSF actuarial certificate is frozen at $1.6 million
Two dollar figures govern a pension-phase SMSF, and they are not the same number. The transfer balance cap indexed to $2.1 million on 1 July. The threshold that pushes a fund onto the proportionate method and an actuarial certificate has sat at $1.6 million since 2017.
Read → - 7 Aug 2026
Moving your own shares into your SMSF is two events on one day: a capped contribution and a personal CGT sale
An off-market transfer of listed shares into your fund is one form that fires two tax events at once: a contribution counted against a cap at market value, and a disposal on your personal return even though no money moves. Plan the first, forget the second, and a bill lands.
Read → - 7 Aug 2026
The 10 August SMSF borrowing change: what it stops, and the three things it doesn't touch
From 10 August 2026 a new limited recourse borrowing arrangement can only acquire business real property. Contracts exchanged before that date are protected, refinancing an existing loan is preserved, and cash purchases are outside the provision entirely.
Read → - 4 Aug 2026
A home sale can put $300,000 into super outside the caps. For an SMSF, three facts decide whether the fund can keep it
A downsizer contribution sits outside the non-concessional cap, has no upper age limit and no work test, and ignores your total super balance at the door. For a self-managed fund the real exposure is not eligibility. It is the 90-day clock, the form, and the trust deed.
Read → - 31 July 2026
A trade done cheaply for your own SMSF can tax the fund at 45 percent. The 2024 law changed how far it spreads
Non-arm's length income is taxed at 45 percent inside a complying fund, not 15. Since 1 July 2024 a general expense underpaid by the fund is capped at twice the shortfall, but a discount tied to one asset taints that asset's income and gains in full.
Read → - 28 July 2026
Two free SMSF messaging providers closed in 2026. Under Payday Super, a dead ESA blocks your contributions
SuperChoice stopped acting as an SMSF messaging provider on 5 May 2026, and Australia Post's SMSF Gateway closed on 30 June. Funds that relied on either now have an electronic service address that no longer works, and Payday Super turns that into a bounced contribution.
Read → - 24 July 2026
The transfer balance cap rose to $2.1 million on 1 July. Most trustees will not get the full increase
The general transfer balance cap indexed from $2.0 to $2.1 million on 1 July 2026. Almost nobody with an existing pension gets the full $100,000: the increase is proportional, and the ATO works yours out from events you have to report this month.
Read → - 21 July 2026
Every SMSF asset needs a fresh 30 June market value, not last year's number carried across
Valuation breaches now sit above 12% of everything SMSF auditors report to the ATO. The rule is one line long: every asset at market value, every 30 June. The evidence is where funds come unstuck.
Read → - 14 July 2026
Carry-forward concessional contributions: five prior years stack into FY 2026-27, gated at $500,000
A trustee who has never touched their concessional cap can direct up to $175,000 into super this year. The figure is real and it sits in the law, gated by one number tested last 30 June and confused with a different rule that shares half its name.
Read → - 12 July 2026
The pension rule that did not change on 1 July, and still catches funds every year
Minimum drawdown percentages are unchanged this year. The dollar amounts are not, because every 1 July the minimum recalculates from that day's balance. The funds that get caught are the ones paying last year's number.
Read → - 12 July 2026
The bring-forward rule moved under your feet on 1 July. Here are the new tiers
Up to $390,000 of after-tax contributions in one year is still possible. But every threshold that decides who qualifies changed with indexation, and a balance check done last year now gives the wrong answer.
Read → - 11 July 2026
Payday Super is live. Two things can bite an SMSF this month, and one is your bank account
Around 244,000 SMSFs receive employer contributions. From 1 July those contributions arrive within seven business days of every payday, into an NPP-enabled account, and July itself can deliver a double-up that eats concessional cap room.
Read → - 11 July 2026
The CGT discount dies in 2027. Your SMSF keeps its one-third. Here is the split
The 50 percent discount is being replaced with indexation and a minimum tax from 1 July 2027. The loudest fact for trustees is the one most coverage buries: superannuation funds are excluded, and the fund's one-third discount survives unchanged.
Read → - 10 July 2026
What changed for SMSFs on 1 July 2026: six numbers to update in your records
Four separate changes landed on the same day this year. Most trustees have heard of one of them. Here are all six numbers that moved, what each one governs, and where the traps sit.
Read → - 9 July 2026
Division 296 started on 1 July. Here is what changed on the ground for SMSF trustees
The new tax on balances above $3 million is live. Most of the commentary covers the politics. Almost none of it tells a trustee which three numbers now matter, or that one widely repeated deadline claim is wrong.
Read → - 6 July 2026
NZ shares in an SMSF: which credits count in Australia, and which never will
Some New Zealand companies attach Australian franking credits to their dividends. Those count. New Zealand imputation credits never do. Funds holding trans-Tasman stocks routinely get this boundary wrong in both directions.
Read → - 6 July 2026
What your SMSF auditor actually needs to see about franking credits
A franking figure in a year-end summary is a claim, not evidence. Auditors need the working: which parcel, held how long, matched to which dividend, under which provision. Most trackers never produce it.
Read → - 19 May 2026
The $5,000 franking exemption myth that costs SMSF trustees credits they never had
The small-shareholder exemption lets individuals skip the 45-day holding rule. Trustees often assume their SMSF gets the same break. It doesn't, and the cost shows up months later, in a place no calculator catches.
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