Are you changing your SMSF trustee to a company?

  • Blog
  • Are you changing your SMSF trustee to a company?
View All Articles

Scroll for more

If you are thinking about removing yourself as an individual trustee of your Self-Managed Superannuation (‘SMSF’) and appointing a company as your trustee, the process can be very simple. However, it can also be quite costly if it is not done correctly.

What do you need to do to change your SMSF trustee to a company?

In order to change your SMSF trustee to a company there are a number of requirements that must be satisfied:

  1. Resignation of Individual Trustees – the current individual trustee/s must submit a notice of resignation to your SMSF. The notice of resignation/s must be maintained with the SMSF register;
  2. Minutes of Meeting – the current individual trustees of your SMSF must record, and acknowledge the following:
    • Their resignation;
    • The appointment of a corporate trustee;
    • A Deed of Variation – this is required to acknowledge the change of trustee, and the replacement SMSF Trust Deed (if applicable);
    • The new SMSF Trust Deed, allowing the corporate trustee to act as the trustee of the SMSF (if applicable).
  3. Consent to Act – the directors of the newly appointed corporate trustee will need to consent to act as a director of a corporate trustee. Each director of the corporate trustee will need to consent in writing. Each signed consent must also be maintained with your SMSF register;
  4. Deed of Variation – a Deed of Variation must be prepared acknowledging the change of trustee of the SMSF. This Deed of Variation must be signed by the resigning individual trustee/s, the newly appointed corporate trustee  directors and the members of the SMSF; and
  5. The new SMSF Trust Deed – before appointing a corporate trustee, you should ensure your SMSF Trust Deed permits a corporate trustee to act on its behalf. If the SMSF Trust Deed does not allow this, it will need to be replaced.

What ATO documents do you need to attend to?

Furthermore, there are a number of documents which are required to be lodged with the ATO within strict timeframes when removing your individual trustees, and appointing a corporate trustee:

  1. ATO SMSF Trustee Declaration;
  2. ATO SMSF Removal of an Associate; and
  3. ATO Change of Details of Superannuation Entities.

When changing your SMSF trustee it is important that:

  1. Everything is properly documented;
  2. All documents and/or copies of documents are maintained with the SMSF Register; and
  3. All relevant documents are lodged with the ATO within the requisite time frame

If you are considering changing your individual trustee/s to a corporate trustee, our team at FC Lawyers can help you make the process as simple as possible.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

The information provided in this article is for general information and educative purposes in summary form on legal topics which is current at the time it is published. The content does not constitute legal advice or recommendations and should not be relied upon as such. Whilst every care has been taken in the preparation of this article, FC Lawyers cannot accept responsibility for any errors, including those caused by negligence, in the material. We make no representations, statements or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of the information and you should not rely on it. You are advised to make your own independent inquiries regarding the accuracy of any information provided on this website. FC Lawyers does not guarantee, and accepts no legal responsibility whatsoever arising from or in connection to the accuracy, reliability, currency, correctness or completeness of any material contained in this article. Links to third party websites or articles does not constitute any endorsement or approval of those sites or the owners of those sites. Nothing in this article should be construed as granting any licence or right for you to use that content. You should consult the third party’s terms and conditions of use in relation to any third-party content. FC Lawyers disclaims all responsibility and all liability (including liability for negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages and costs you might incur as a result of the information being inaccurate or incomplete in any way. Appropriate legal advice should always be obtained in actual situations.

WE’RE HERE TO HELP

Prefer to get in touch?

With offices in Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, North Queensland and Sydney, our team is well equipped to provide both advice and support across a broad range of legal areas.

phone-icon
Free call 1800 640 509
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.