SMSF auditors still under ASIC scrutiny

Staff Writer

Financial Newswire

2 February 2026

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has reinforced the degree to which it has increased scrutiny on in-house audits of self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) clients.

At the same time as announcing the cancellation of the registration of 28 SMSF auditors during the first half of the current financial year, the regulator said that two of four auditors disqualified over the past six months were disqualified because they continued auditing SMSFs whose financial statement were prepared by staff in their own firm.

It said this conduct had continued even after ASIC had imposed extra conditions on their SMSF auditor registrations.

Since 2020, auditors are explicitly prohibited from auditing SMSF financial statements where their firm provides accounting services, including preparing financial statements, unless the accounting services are routine or mechanical and any independence threats created by providing those services are reduced an acceptable level.

However, a 2025 review by the ATO indicated that up to 800 SMSF auditors may still be performing in-house audits, so this risk continues to remain a focus on the ATO’s compliance program.

ASIC announced late last week that between 1 July 2025 and 31 December 2025, ASIC:

• disqualified 4 SMSF auditors,
• imposed additional conditions on 2 SMSF auditors, and
• cancelled the registration of 22 SMSF auditors.