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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
Your SMSF auditor needs to see how each unlisted asset was valued, not only the figure. We provide dated, reasoned market values for the assets that have no screen price: shares in the family company, units in a related trust, a Tomago or Beresfield industrial unit leased to the members' business, and loans to related parties.
Indicative valuations from A$799. Certified Summary and Detailed reports from seven business days.
At each 30 June an SMSF reports its assets at market value, and the trustees must be able to back every figure with objective, supportable evidence. Newcastle trustees holding private company shares, related trust units, premises leased to the members or a related-party loan need a dated valuation from someone with no stake in the fund.
Each year an SMSF auditor signs two opinions, one on the financial statements and one on compliance with superannuation law, and both rest on what the assets are worth. A listed share or a bank balance can be checked against a statement in minutes. A stake in the members' own business cannot, so the auditor has to be satisfied that the figure is a market value and not a hopeful guess, and the job of showing it falls to the trustees.
Funds set up by Hunter business families tend to hold the same handful of hard-to-value assets. A factory unit at Beresfield or Tomago leased to the members' mining services or fabrication company. A yard near Williamtown let to a firm that supplies the defence precinct. Consulting rooms at New Lambton Heights leased to the members' medical or allied health practice. A minority holding in a Newcastle CBD professional firm, units in a trust that owns a shop on Beaumont Street in Hamilton, or a loan to a relative's company. Each needs a method, evidence and a valuation date that fit the reason the figure is needed.
The figure goes further than most trustees expect. It flows into every member's total superannuation balance, and from there into contribution caps and Division 296. It sets the transfer balance credit when a retirement phase pension starts, and that year's minimum payment. It decides whether the fund stays inside the 5 per cent in-house asset limit, and if a related-party price departs from market, the non-arm's length income rules can tax the affected income at the top marginal rate.
We value the unlisted assets auditors query most, at whatever date the event requires, and work with trustees, accountants and auditors across Newcastle and the Hunter by video call and phone. Trustees make the decisions and the auditor applies the law; we supply a value whose reasoning is on the page, so nobody has to take it on trust.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
Regulation 8.02B of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994 requires an SMSF to prepare its accounts with assets at market value. The ATO's guidance on valuing fund assets looks for evidence that is objective and supportable, prepared by someone with suitable skills, and refreshed when circumstances change. Not every asset needs a full formal valuation every year; in between, a documented review showing that nothing material has moved can be enough.
The year-end accounts show every asset at its market value on 30 June. A figure rolled over unchanged with nothing to show it was reviewed draws questions, and if the auditor cannot get comfortable with a material asset, the audit report is qualified and a contravention report to the ATO may follow.
A fund can acquire only limited classes of asset from a related party, business real property among them, and must pay market value; a sale to a related party must also be at arm's length. Transferring a Beresfield workshop into the fund, or selling family company shares out of it, needs a valuation dated to the transfer. Any duty on a property transfer is assessed by Revenue NSW under the Duties Act 1997 (NSW), which may look at value as well as price, so one well-supported figure can serve both.
What the fund's assets are worth on the start day sets the credit to the member's transfer balance account and the base for the minimum annual payment. Both are hard to correct once reported, so if an unlisted asset supports the pension, have it valued as at that day.
Benefit payments and rollovers, a switch from accumulation to retirement phase, a wind-up, and anything else that could move a value materially before the next 30 June: the anchor tenant leaving a suburban shopping centre, the investee company losing a major mine services or defence contract, a key client walking away, or the death of a member.
Division 296 imposes extra tax on earnings linked to the part of a member's total superannuation balance above its threshold. Market values at 30 June 2026 matter under the measure, both for members' balances and, if the fund's adviser recommends it, for resetting the cost base of fund assets to their value on that day. If the fund held property, private company shares or unlisted units on 30 June 2026, each needs a market value at that date, whether or not one was obtained then. A valuation prepared now can address that date, provided it relies only on information known or reasonably knowable at the time. Your adviser confirms the thresholds, rates and elections for each member; we provide the values.
Auditors look first at whether the method fits the asset, and so do we. Net assets work for a company that holds nothing but cash and listed securities. They do not work for a trading company, whose goodwill sits outside the balance sheet.
Private company shares and units in a trading trust start with the income approach: we normalise the earnings, capitalise what the business can maintain at a rate matched to its risk, cross-check the result against sales evidence and treat net assets as the floor. Where the fund holds less than control, the report considers whether the facts support a discount for lack of control or marketability, looking at the shareholders' agreement and the dividend record, and explains its view. A discount applied out of habit fails review just as surely as one nobody thought about.
Business real property leased to the members' business needs both a capital value and a market rent, and rent is where evidence is most often missing. Leasing evidence is generally available across the industrial estates at Beresfield and Tomago, around the medical precinct at New Lambton Heights and for retail strips such as Beaumont Street; where the capital value is material, a registered property valuer's report sits behind it. Units in a related unit trust are valued alongside the trust's underlying assets at the same date, and we check that the trust still meets the conditions that keep the units outside the in-house asset limit. Loans are judged on whether the borrower can really repay, the security held and whether an unrelated lender would accept the terms. Collectables have a regulation of their own, including the need for a qualified independent valuer when one is sold to a related party.
Auditors raise the same handful of issues year after year. Any one of them can end in a qualified opinion or a contravention report, and each is preventable with the right method applied at the right date.
Most funds need a report the auditor can follow without having to ring us, and a certified Summary report usually does that. Step up to a Detailed report when the asset is large relative to the fund, a sizeable related-party transfer or a pension start depends on the figure, or a member's Division 296 position turns on it.
Before it values anything, every report names the event that called for it and the date it speaks to. A trading company comes with its normalisation schedule, maintainable earnings and a sourced capitalisation rate. Leased premises are supported by comparable sales and comparable rents. The reconciliation then shows how the conclusion was reached, so the auditor can follow it alone, though we are always happy to take the call.
The signature is a certified valuer's, and that person has no interest in the fund, the members or any entity in the report. If the auditor has questions, the valuer answers them; if the ATO reviews the fund, the valuer defends the opinion. Independence is a large part of what the auditor is relying on, which is why a short note from the members' own accountant seldom closes the matter. Should the same asset later be argued over, for instance in a family provision claim under Chapter 3 of the Succession Act 2006 (NSW) or an oppression case in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the same valuer can give evidence on how the figure was reached.
If your auditor asked next week how that value was reached, could you hand over a dated, reasoned report from someone with nothing riding on the number? If all you have is last year's figure carried forward, that asset is the place to start.
Talk your situation through with a certified valuer before you commit to anything, at no cost.