costs of operating a smsf don't need to be daunting at all bearing in mind the legal requirements require:
- preparation of fincial statements - lodgment of a tax return and member cont'n statement - an audit
with this in mind, trustees can in effect prepare their own financials (although in most cases this is usually done by an accountant) and lodge their own tax return - in most cases it really is straight forward - this just leaves the cost of the audit - t'fore you could do it all for no more than say $500 for audit
as a crude guide - regardless of the size, a fund with say 20 shares and or trusts and minimal trading may incur costs as:
- accounting / tax 1200 - 1500 - audit 400 - 600 - ato lodgment (fy 08) 150 - total say 2000 avg (some online providers are much cheaper than this again but offer zero 'advice')
for a 100k fund these costs as a % is still only 2% - at 200k fund = 1%
the key premise of operating a smsf is control and flexibility + ancillary items such as cost effective life insurance
in addition, one of the primary benefits is doing away with lazy fund advisor fees
very disappointing that 'low value' funds could be discriminated against and forced back into the system (that they consciously tried to avoid) controlled by fund managers with onerous administration charges and potentially no better net gains
vey poor form this this was to be legislated
also - 'shonky' relates to the actions of the trustees and has no bearing on asset value - the tightening up of auditors and compliance will resolve this)
