Issue

I need to electronically lodge the Annual Return for a wind up fund and don't want to wait until next June when the tax stationary will be available. 

Background

The ATO only releases the final SMSF Annual Return stationery around June every year. The ATO allows wind up funds to electronically lodge the Annual Return and associated schedules earlier, using previous Financial Year stationary.

SMSFs that are wound up during FY2026 or later can be lodged electronically on Class before 15th June of the following year. After this date you can lodge using the correct FY stationary.

Resolution

Avoid entering a future date as the fund end date to prevent inconsistent financials with future date events. You should enter the current date or a date in the past as the End Date of the fund.

1. Go to Fund > Fund Details > enter the End Date
2. Go to Periodic Processing > Period Update > choose the financial year > run the final Period Update to the End Date
3. Finalise Tax
4. Review and Validate the SMSF Annual Return
5. Submit the annual return
6. Go to Reports > Run Report > generate Annual Return, CGT schedule, Losses schedule and Trust Income schedule, you will be able to generate Annual Return - SMSF for the wound up year using the previous year's template.
7. Go to business level > Periodic Processing > Tax Agent Administration and lodge the SMSF annual return

The validation rules are applied using previous financial year stationary

Any Capital losses and Tax losses that are not utilised during the wind-up process cannot be transferred to another person or entity and benefit will be lost upon wind up.
 

FAQs

Why does the Annual Return and schedule show the previous Financial Year?

Prior year stationary is used as the current year template is not yet available from the ATO. 

However, all information in the report (including the wind-up date, income schedule, and other details) relates to the current financial year in which the fund is being wound up.

Whilst this is not visible in the PDFs it is transmitted to the ATO in the data file. 

Why can’t I see the capital and tax losses for the wind-up year?

The capital and tax losses for the wind-up year (current Financial Year) are not displayed because the report is using the previous financial year’s template (as the current FY template is not yet available from the ATO). 

Where necessary, you may need to manually update the carried forward capital and tax losses in the tax return.

Example : For the FY2026 wound up SMSF FY2025 ATO stationary has been used. In the Losses schedule, enter FY2026's carried forward tax loss at  Part A-1 in label B which shows as Tax losses carried forward - 2024-25. Enter FY2026's carried forward net capital loss at Part A-2 in label H which shows as Net capital losses carried forward - 2024-25.
 

Any unused capital or tax losses in the wind-up year cannot be carried forward and will be lost.