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The ATO is investigating system errors in its newly launched text message alert service for SMSF trustees which were mistakenly triggering alerts for trustees upon lodgement of their 2019 annual return.
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ATO investigating errors in SMSF alert service
14 February 2020
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The errors, which have been flagged by a number of SMSF industry professionals this week, are being investigated “as a priority” by the ATO, with a fix to be deployed shortly, a spokesperson for the regulator told SMSF Adviser.
“This matter came to our attention late yesterday and we took steps to stop new SMSF alerts going out and identified the reason for the incorrect alerts,” the spokesperson said.
“The SMS alert is intended to advise SMSF fund trustees [when] we believe there has been changes to some client account details. It should be noted that there is no impact on SMSF account balances or fund details.”
According to reports from SMSF practitioners, the errors appeared to stem from lodgement of SMSF annual returns, which triggered a change in the SMSF’s electronic service address (ESA) that then generated a mistaken alert to the affected trustees.
“The ATO is now issuing alerts directly to trustees via email and/or text messages when any changes are made within their SMSF. Unfortunately, one of those communications may involve an error in the ATO’s own database concerning a change of ESA,” SMSF Alliance principal David Busoli said in an email to clients on Wednesday.
“If your clients receive such a notification, you should first check to see if it is correct as, in the short term, it is likely that it’s not.”
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Vincents director of SMSF advisory Brett Griffiths also identified the issue, which was generating mistaken alerts for SMSF clients whose annual returns were lodged through Class, in a LinkedIn post this week.
“Trustees of SMSFs administered on Class may start to receive notices, thereby adding extra time constraints on tax agents answering questions of trustees due to an ATO error,” Mr Griffiths said.
The ATO said upon discovering the issue, it had stopped the SMS alert service incorrectly triggering to impacted funds.
“We will provide an update as soon as the fix has been deployed. SMSF trustees can be assured that any alerts received are being correctly triggered,” the ATO spokesperson said.
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