Early in August, the ATO Assistant Commissioner Kasey Macfarlane again raised the issue of auditor independence. In particular the issue of reciprocal auditors – the situation where 2 auditors with their own funds agreed to audit each other’s SMSFs, or where 2 partner firms have ‘Chinese walls’.
In our opinion, this highlights the importance of actually being independent, not just being perceived as independent. If the ATO perceives it, then their ‘close attention’ will lead to costs and time waste for auditors. Here is the article from SMSF Adviser:
