Since 2012, all of the assets held by an SMSF need to be in the accounts of the SMSF at market value at the end of each financial year. And with ATO increasing audit activity, trustees and auditors need to be on top of current market values.

Obtaining a market value could arguably be the main cause of delayed accounts for SMSFs. With the end of year quickly approaching, all trustees need to be looking at determining the market value of their assets on the 30th of June.

There are some assets are very easy and may not require any work from trustees. For example, if you own shares on the Australian Stock exchange, there is publicly available records to give their market value. The difficulty lies with specific assets where there is not a ready market to determine the price. For example, this might be the case with properties or investments in smaller companies and trusts.

If you have an investment in direct property, there are two ways to get the property valued.

1. You can engage a licensed real estate valuer to give you a written opinion. In cases where you don’t want to go to that expense, and your auditor is comfortable with the approach, you can obtain a written opinion on value from a real estate agent. However, this written opinion would need to show comparable sales, and may be similar to a written appraisal by an agent that is trying to win your listing of the property. For some standard residential properties, your tax agents (us) can obtain cost-effective valuations. In certain years though, you will need to engage a licensed valuer.
2. Investments in private companies and unit trusts are far more difficult to value, especially if the assets of those entities comprise o things like goodwill or trading activities. Where you have these investments, sometimes you will need to engage the services of a business valuer to determine the market value. Our Business Valuation team are ready to assist you with this.

We are able to offer you direction on where to go to obtain these market values, but the important thing to note is that you need to begin this process now.

We’re ready to help. Contact our Senior Manager Superannuation on +61 3 9820 6400 to discuss the next step to take.