Up to 500 SMSF trustees a year are likely to be subject to education directives that will be imposed by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
This is the expectation of the ATO once the necessary legislation passed the Parliament in the next few weeks, the SMSF Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA) national conference has been told.
SPAA technical director Peter Burgess said, however, that education directives were not expected to entail more than about four hours' engagement on the part of affected SMSF trustees.
Burgess said the industry broadly welcomed the new legislation because of the flexibility it would deliver the ATO via education directives and rectification directives.
He said that in the absence of the new legislation, the ATO was largely reliant on the "nuclear option" — actually closing down a fund.
The legislative regime is scheduled to start from 1 July this year.
