The ATO’s SMSF statistical overview

Last Monday, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) released a publication called “Self-managed superannuation funds – a statistical overview 2008-09”.  It’s a fascinating document (and not just for people who are interested in numbers).  It provides a snapshot of what the SMSF sector looked like in 2009, based on the returns lodged with the ATO for 2008/09.

(Why are the stats so old, you ask?  Because SMSF returns are routinely lodged so late that these are the most up to date figures!  An interesting piece of trivia – only around 70% of SMSFs lodge on time.  Around 10% are more than 6 months late.  Given that most well behaved SMSFs don’t have to lodge their returns until nearly 12 months after the year end, it’s hard to see how anyone could compile more current statistics.)

There are many interesting numbers in the report.  I’ve written an article for the AFR’s DIY Super site (www.afr.com/diysuper) which should be up there in the next few days that talks about the compliance statistics.

But there are other interesting segments of the report.

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