SMSF - What are you paying in accounting fees

H

handyandy

Hi All

As per heading, how much are you paying to do the annual account for your SMSF.

My super fund has asset of about $1.4mil and the assets it holds are about 30 share portfolio, cash, some gold and one managed fund.

I paid $3960 in accounting fees last year!!!:(

We copy all the bank account statements as at 30/6. We provide copies of all the dividend statement for the year. We provide the password for comsec so a valuation can be determined as at the EOY.

And more to the point have done all the MYOB for the year and reconciled all the bank accounts.

Discussing this with my accountant yesterday (more like tackled him) he BS'ed on about the audit requirements etc

How much work is really left?

Cheers
 
My SMSF is simple with cash + interest + rental income from CIP. I pay about $400pa for the return and audit provided I do all the paperwork ready to hand over as a spreadsheet
 
dan c said:
How can they do the compliance work AND the audit?
Click to expand...

I would presume they'll outsource the audit to an external provider and pay them. Possibly they get a discount for bulk referral work and possibly they keep a little commission too. :)

The audit process is to satisfy a paper trail and ensure compliance.

Andy, it sounds like you are paying a bomb. Our total value is close to yours. Three properties and cash these days. Only a couple of stocks. I pay around a thousand for the return and circa $400 for the audit. You are doing a lot of prep work for them. Good on you for seeking a new accounant.
 
I know the guys at HOW are charging around $1,500 plus audit. Less for less complex funds. Might be worth giving them a call. www.houseofwealth.com.au

Anything cheaper and you won't get a relationship just send in info, punch in the numbers, sign and return and no contact with the provider. Personally I think for the small extra and the fact you see someone and deal with them HOW is providing pretty good value for money.
 
Player said:
I would presume they'll outsource the audit to an external provider and pay them. Possibly they get a discount for bulk referral work and possibly they keep a little commission too. :)
Click to expand...

Maybe, but I'm not sure how the auditor maintains their independence in this scenario.

To the OP, $4000 is steep, but $1500 including audit is too cheap. You are getting a bookkeeper for that price, not an accountant.
 
Dan

With tools like class super which is what this group uses the days of data entry are well.and truly gone. Why should clients.be paying an accountant who doesn't get automated data feeds ?

Many firms haven't passed on the savings with new technologies onto their clients. This is the harsh reality.
 
coastymike said:
Anything cheaper and you won't get a relationship just send in info, punch in the numbers, sign and return and no contact with the provider. Personally I think for the small extra and the fact you see someone and deal with them HOW is providing pretty good value for money.
Click to expand...


To be honest I am not looking for a relationship - I have one with my wife:)

In the whole time I have been operating my SMSF (since 1994) I have never sought advice from my current accountant and have been doing transaction up to and including bank reconciliation using MYOB.

I pass the file and copies of all relevant documents to the accountant and I get back a tax return and I may get some queries as to this or that transaction. Come to think most of the queries are because they didn't record the answers from last year and a new trainee is doing it this year.

So all up not impressed and certainly don't want to feel warm and fussy about my SMSF. This has now turned into a pure $ for outcome (tax return) venture.

Cheers
 
The other option is to do it yourself and then deal with the auditor yourself.

You could use something like Bgl Simple fund (most accountants I know use this anyway) as it has a trustee edition.

Cost first year $649 + $660 audit (based what I charge for your fund due to the number of investments)= $1,309.00

The next year

$431.00 + $660 = $1,091

You could reduce even further if you can share the software with some else.

http://www.bglcorp.com/products/simple-fund/prices
 
Property Hoarde said:
Is the tax agent and the auditor different?

If the audit is been done correctly it should be at least $300 by itself.
Click to expand...

Yes different people.

As I do the majority of the preparationn work and refer a lot of new business to my accountant, he does my personal and SMSF and company tax work at a reduced rate.
 
dan c said:
Maybe, but I'm not sure how the auditor maintains their independence in this scenario.
Click to expand...

No independance issues as the audit is not effected by if the accountant or the trustee pays the bill.

Only issue would be if the auditors clients are all coming from this one accountant or a very big %.
 
Here's costs from Superplus a QLD group

There's also eSuper

Though House Of Wealth maybe a good option also

According to the latest from Paul KEATING its not worth starting a SMSF unless you have around $600k available

In a strike at the self-managed superannuation sector, Keating also said that in most instances SMSFs were not cost-effective for amounts below $600,000 and he questioned whether the majority of SMSF trustees had the requisite knowledge to manage their funds.

“How many self managers have the required level of financial expertise,” he said.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm... :rolleyes:
 
coastymike said:
Dan

With tools like class super which is what this group uses the days of data entry are well.and truly gone. Why should clients.be paying an accountant who doesn't get automated data feeds ?
Click to expand...

Automated data feeds aren't free.

I'm more talking about the advice thaty comes with using a professional, rather than these SMSF sausage factories. For some people, like HandyAndy, they don't need any advice and they know what they are doing.

The majority of SMSF trustees though have only a basic idea, or, in some cases, no idea at all. Paying a bit extra and having a proper, professional relationship with their advisor could potentially save them dollars over the journey.

(I realise I'm talking thought my wallet, but I believe in offering a good service to our clients, not just trying to compete on price.)
 
FYI, as of June (I think), ther eare 481,000 SMSF's in Australia, with an average FUM of $1,000,000. SMSF's now make up 31% of the super sector.
 
Agree Dan and a higher fee is then justified. I guess I was just commenting on HandyAndy's facts which indicated that he did not seek any advice and it was just a number crunching exercise.

ClassSuper costs $250 per annum per fund and that is an all inclusive cost to the accountant so not an overly significant burden. Given that the data feeds dramatically reduce the time to prepare a return then $1,500 is more than reasonable (without advice required)

Buying your own BGL license. Good luck. The program is very complex and if you process an entry incorrectly your fund return will be wrong. Same as Class Super the program is complex. You'd probably spend hours and hours learning BGL to just do your own fund. Class Super requires a minimum fee of about $6k so not even worth considering.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Overseas tax treatment - SMSF
Replies
4
Views
1K
Paul@PFI
Paul@PFI
A
SMSF account costs
Replies
13
Views
2K
RetireRich101
R
S
What I learnt ? Call Depreciator, always ask questions.
Replies
4
Views
2K
Sasi
S
bentrails
Conveyancer does not have a trust account
Replies
10
Views
3K
T.G
T
CosmicTrevor
The use of loan offsets against limited recourse loans in SMSFs
Replies
4
Views
2K
CosmicTrevor
CosmicTrevor
Back
Top